wey
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English weie, waie, weihe, wæȝe, from Old English wǣġ (“a weight; a tool for weighing, balance, scale”), from Proto-West Germanic *wāgu, from Proto-Germanic *wēgō (“scales; weight”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to move, bring, transport”). Cognate with German Waage (“weight”), Icelandic vág (“a weight”).
Pronunciation edit
- enPR: wā, IPA(key): /weɪ/
- Rhymes: -eɪ
- Homophones: way, weigh, whey (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Noun edit
wey (plural weys)
- (uncommon, archaic) An old English measure of weight containing 224 pounds; equivalent to 2 hundredweight.
- c. 1376, William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman, Version B, Passus 5, Line 91:
- Than though I hadde this wouke ywonne a weye of Essex cheese.
- 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge[1], volume 27, page 202:
- Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod, 6½ tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. […] It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.
- 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 208:
- Cheese and salt are purchased by the wey of two hundredweight, or by the stone of fourteen pounds.
- 1858, Peter Lund Simmonds, The Dictionary of Trade Products, Manufacturing, and Technical Terms[2], page 410:
- WEY, WEIGH, an English measure of weight; for wool, equal to 6½ tods of 28 lbs.; a load or five quarters of wheat; 40 bushels of salt, each 56 lbs.; 32 cloves of cheese, each 7 lbs.; 48 bushels of oats and barley; 2 to 3 cwt. of butter.
- c. 1376, William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman, Version B, Passus 5, Line 91:
Anagrams edit
Akatek edit
Etymology edit
From Proto-Mayan *way-
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
wey
- (intransitive) to sleep
References edit
Preliminary Classic Maya ‐ English, English ‐ Classic Maya Vocabulary of Hieroglyphic Readings by Erik Boot
2022. Akateko Living Dictionary. Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. ( to sleep "wey" wav recording )
Middle English edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Old English weġ, from Proto-West Germanic *weg, from Proto-Germanic *wegaz.
Alternative forms edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
wey (plural weys)
Descendants edit
References edit
- “wei, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 2 edit
Noun edit
wey
- Alternative form of whey
Nigerian Pidgin edit
Etymology edit
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Conjunction edit
wey
Pronoun edit
wey
Spanish edit
Etymology edit
Variant of güey, representing the relaxed pronunciation of the /ɡw/ sounds.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
wey m (plural weyes)
- (Mexico, colloquial slang, eye dialect, Internet) chump, punk, dumbass, idiot, jerk
- (Mexico, colloquial, Internet, also Latin America) dude, guy, buddy
Usage notes edit
- Due to the popularization of memes using Mexican slang all over Latin America through social networks, the word is heavily used on the internet by non-Mexicans and sometimes employed in spoken language.