oyez

English

Alternative forms

• oyes

Etymology

From Middle English oyes, from Old French oyez, the imperative plural of oir (“hear; listen”), from Latin audīre.

Commonly folk-etymologized as (and pronounced homophonously to) O + yes in the early modern period.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊˌjeɪ/, IPA^(key): /oʊˈjeɪ/, IPA^(key): /oʊˈjɛs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /oʊˈjeɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ, (UK) -ɛs
• Hyphenation: o‧yez

Interjection

oyez

1. Hear ye. Attend. (Called by public criers or in court usually three times to secure silence and/or attentiveness).

Usage notes

• It is still used in the United States Supreme Court, similar to calling “order”, and in many state supreme courts, though some lower courts have dropped its use.

Noun

oyez (plural oyezes)

1. A cry of "oyez".

Verb

oyez (no third-person singular simple present, no present participle, no simple past or past participle)

1. (transitive, rare) To proclaim with a cry of "oyez".
   • 1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 3:

     I truſte you make no queſtion about thoſe dull pated pennifathers, that in ſuch dudgen ſcorne reiected him, drunck deep of the ſowre cup of repentance for it, when the high flight of his lines in common brute was ooyeſſed.

References

• Webster's International Dictionary: 1902.
• Concise Oxford: 1981.

Anagrams

• Yezo, Zoey

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.je/

Verb

oyez

1. second-person plural imperative of ouïr

Old French

Alternative forms

• oiez
• oez

Verb

oyez

1. second-person plural present indicative of oir
2. second-person plural imperative of oir