Wiktionary

eye

See also: Eye and ẹyẹ

EnglishEdit

 
A human eye, showing iris and pupil behind the transparent cornea
 
Compound eye of a species of fly, showing size gradation of ommatidia from top down. The ocelli are just visible at the top between the compound eyes
 
Eye of a sewing needle with thread passing through
 
The eye of a tropical cyclonic storm shows here as a dark spot in the middle of the white vortex of cloud as seen from a satellite

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle English eye, eie, yë, eighe, eyghe, yȝe, eyȝe, from Old English ēage (“eye”), from Proto-West Germanic *augā, from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”) (compare Scots ee, West Frisian each, Dutch oog, German Auge, Danish øje, Norwegian Bokmål øye, Norwegian Nynorsk auga, Swedish öga), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃okʷ-, *h₃ekʷ- (“eye; to see”).

Other Indo-European cognates include Latin oculus (whence English oculus), Lithuanian akìs, Old Church Slavonic око (oko), Albanian sy, Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps, “(poetic) eye; face”) and ὄσσε (ósse, “eyes”), Armenian ակն (akn), Avestan 𐬀𐬱𐬌‎ (aši, “eyes”), Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi). Related to ogle.

The uncommon plural form eyen is from Middle English eyen, from Old English ēagan, nominative and accusative plural of ēage (“eye”).

NounEdit

eye (plural eyes or (obsolete or dialectal) eyen or (obsolete) eyne)

  1. An organ through which animals see (perceive surroundings via light).
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:eye
    Hyponym: ocellus
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
      To vvhat, my loue, ſhall I compare thine eyne? / Chriſtall is muddy.
    • 1605, The Trial of Chivalry:
      Were it to search the furthest Northern clime / Where frosty Hyems with an ycie Mace / Strikes dead all living things, Ide find it out, / And borrowing fire from those fayre sunny eyne / Thaw Winters frost and warme that dead cold clime: […]
    • 1817 December​, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 361:
      Now with a bitter smile, whose light did shine / Like a fiend’s hope upon his lips and eyne, / He said, and the persuasion of that sneer / Rallied his trembling comrades— […]
    • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
      She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. His wooing had been brief but incisive.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter XVII, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue.  […] .
    • 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist‎[1]:
      The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.
    Bright lights really hurt my eyes.
  2. The visual sense.
    The car was quite pleasing to the eye, but impractical.
  3. The iris of the eye, being of a specified colour.
    Brown, blue, green, hazel eyes.
    Natalie’s brown eyes looked into Jim’s blue eyes, and the girl and boy flirted.
  4. Attention, notice.
    That dress caught her eye.
  5. The ability to notice what others might miss.
    Synonym: perceptiveness
    He has an eye for talent.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
  6. A meaningful stare or look.
    She was giving him the eye at the bar.
    When the car cut her off, she gave him the eye.
  7. A private eye: a privately hired detective or investigator.
  8. A hole at the blunt end of a needle through which thread is passed.
  9. The oval hole of an axehead through which the axehandle is fitted.
    • 1856 October 18, The People’s Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator, Sydney, N.S.W., page 6, column 1:
      [H]e struck the Duffer a sharp blow on the back of the head with the eye of the axe, and left him stunned and senseless on the earth[.]
  10. A fitting consisting of a loop of metal or other material, suitable for receiving a hook or the passage of a cord or line.
    Synonym: eyelet
  11. The relatively clear and calm center of a hurricane or other cyclonic storm.
  12. A mark on an animal, such as a peacock or butterfly, resembling a human eye.
  13. The dark spot on a black-eyed pea.
  14. A reproductive bud in a potato.
  15. (informal) The dark brown center of a black-eyed Susan flower.
  16. A loop forming part of anything, or a hole through anything, to receive a rope, hook, pin, shaft, etc.; for example, at the end of a tie bar in a bridge truss, through a crank, at the end of a rope, or through a millstone.
  17. That which resembles the eye in relative importance or beauty.
  18. Tinge; shade of colour.
    • 1664, Robert Boyle, Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours
      Red with an eye of blue makes a purple.
  19. One of the holes in certain kinds of cheese.
  20. (architecture) The circle in the centre of a volute.
  21. (typography) The enclosed counter (negative space) of the small letter e.
  22. (game of Go) An empty point or group of points surrounded by one player's stones.
  23. (usually in the plural) View or opinion.
    This victory will make us great in the eyes of the world.
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
  • Sranan Tongo: ai
TranslationsEdit
See eye/translations § Noun.
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit

VerbEdit

eye (third-person singular simple present eyes, present participle eyeing or eying, simple past and past participle eyed)

  1. (transitive) To carefully or appraisingly observe (someone or something).
    After eyeing the document for half an hour, she decided not to sign it.
    They went out and eyed the new car one last time before deciding.
    • 1859, Fraser's Magazine (volume 60, page 671)
      Each downcast monk in silence takes / His place a newmade grave around, / Each one his brother sadly eying.
    Synonym: gaze (poetic)
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To appear; to look.
  3. (transitive) To remove the reproductive buds from (potatoes).
    • 1996, Food Preparation and Cooking (page 418)
      Once the potatoes have been rumbled they require 'eyeing' with a turning knife or hand peeler.
    • 2012, Bob Vargovcik, Bayonne Boy (page 19)
      My first assignment was eyeing old potatoes. The Siegler brothers would buy potatoes so old they looked like an octopus. My job was to make them look presentable and, of course, sellable.
  4. (transitive) To allow (fish eggs) to develop so that the black eye spots are visible.
    • 1927, Appendix to the Journals of the Senate and Assembly of the Forty-Seventh Session of the Legislature of the State of California
      Eggs were collected from the Taylor Creek, Upper Truckee River, and Blackwood Creek traps and transported to this station to be eyed […]
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit


The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2Edit

NounEdit

eye (plural eyes)

  1. The name of the Latin-script letter I.
    • 2004 Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, p. 170
      It said, in a whispering, buzzing voice, "Gee-you-ess-ess-ay-dash-em-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-em-eye-en-gee-oh-dash-pee-eye-pee-dash-pee-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-pee-eye-en-gee-oh."
    • 2016 CCEB, Communications Instructions Radiotelephone Procedures: ACP125 (G), p. 3-5
      IED [is spoken] as "eye-ee-dee" instead of "I SPELL India Echo Delta Romeo".
Alternative formsEdit

Etymology 3Edit

Probably from rebracketing of a nye as an eye.

NounEdit

eye (plural eyes)

  1. A brood.
    an eye of pheasants

AnagramsEdit

Middle EnglishEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Old English eġe, from Proto-West Germanic *agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂égʰos. Doublet of awe.

Alternative formsEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

eye (uncountable)

  1. awe, reverence, worshipfulness
  2. horror, panic
  3. that which creates reverence; the exercise of power
  4. that which incites awe
  5. that which incites terror
Related termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
  • English: ey (obsolete)

ReferencesEdit

Etymology 2Edit

NounEdit

eye

  1. Alternative form of eie

Etymology 3Edit

NounEdit

eye

  1. Alternative form of ey (“egg”)

NupeEdit

Etymology 1Edit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

eyé

  1. eye
  2. face; surface

Etymology 2Edit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

eyè

  1. nose

TatarEdit

AdverbEdit

eye

  1. very, of course, emphatic adverb

Tetelcingo NahuatlEdit

InterjectionEdit

eye

  1. hey!

ReferencesEdit

  • Brewer, Forrest; Brewer, Jean G. (1962) Vocabulario mexicano de Tetelcingo, Morelos: Castellano-mexicano, mexicano-castellano (Serie de vocabularios indígenas Mariano Silva y Aceves; 8)‎[2] (in Spanish), México, D.F.: El Instituto Lingüístico de Verano en coordinación con la Secretaría de Educación Pública a través de la Dirección General de Internados de Enseñanza Primaria y Educación Indígena, published 1971, page 126

Tocharian BEdit

EtymologyEdit

Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éy-ós, nominalized form of *h₁ey- (“to go”), where the semantics developed along the lines of the animals being herded. For similar etymological and semantic developments, compare Hittite iyant (“sheep”) and Oscan eítuvam (“wealth”) (originally meaning livestock, for which semantically compare Latin pecunia).

NounEdit

eye ?

  1. sheep, goat

Further readingEdit

  • Adams, Douglas Q. (2013), “eye”, in A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 98

UmbunduEdit

PronounEdit

eye

  1. (third-person singular pronoun)

See alsoEdit

Umbundu personal pronouns
singular plural
first-person ame etu
second-person ove ene
third-person eye ovo

YorubaEdit

Alternative formsEdit

Etymology 1Edit

Possibly related to etymology 2, but this is used in slightly more formal settings.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

èye

  1. (Ekiti) mother, mom
    Synonyms: ìyá, ùyá, màmá, mọ́mì, abiyamọ, iye, ìmọ̀mọ́, màámi, ìmọ́ọ̀
  2. a term of familiarity or respect for an older woman, or older female relative, or a priestess
    Synonyms: ìyá, màmá, yèyé
Derived termsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

Perhaps related to Edo iye and Yorùbá iye

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

èyé

  1. (Ekiti) mother, mom
    Synonyms: ìyá, ùyá, màmá, mọ́mì, abiyamọ, iye, ìmọ̀mọ́, màámi, ìmọ́ọ̀
  2. a term of familiarity or respect for an older woman, or older female relative
    Synonyms: ìyá, màmá, yèyé
Derived termsEdit
  • èyeèye (“grandmother, maternal grandmother”)
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