hay

English Online Dictionary. What means hay‎? What does hay mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: hā, IPA^(key): /heɪ/
• Homophone: hey
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1

From Middle English hey, from Old English hīeġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hawi, from Proto-Germanic *hawją (compare West Frisian hea, Dutch hooi, German Heu, Norwegian høy), from *hawwaną (“to hew, cut down”). More at hew.

Noun

hay (countable and uncountable, plural hays)

1. (uncountable) Grass cut and dried for use as animal fodder.
2. (countable) Any mix of green leafy plants used for fodder.
3. (slang) Cannabis; marijuana.
   • 1947, William Burroughs, letter, 19 Feb 1947:

     I would like some of that hay. Enclose $20.
4. A net set around the haunt of an animal, especially a rabbit.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• hay on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

hay (third-person singular simple present hays, present participle haying, simple past and past participle hayed)

1. To cut grasses or herb plants for use as animal fodder.
2. To lay snares for rabbits.

Translations

See also

• bale
• straw

Etymology 2

From Middle English haye, heye, a conflation of Old English heġe (“hedge, fence”) and Old English ġehæġ (“an enclosed piece of land”).

Noun

hay (plural hays)

1. (obsolete) A hedge.
2. (obsolete) A net placed around the lair or burrow of an animal.
3. (obsolete) An enclosure, haw.
4. (obsolete) A circular country dance.

Etymology 3

From the sound it represents, by analogy with other letters such as kay and gay. The expected form in English if the h had survived in the Latin name of the letter "h", hā.

Noun

hay (plural hays)

1. The letter for the h sound in Pitman shorthand.

Related terms

• aitch, the Latin letter for this sound

Further reading

• Hay (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

See also

• yeet hay

Anagrams

• AYH, YHA, Yah, yah

Fingallian

Etymology

From Middle English hey, from Old English hīeġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hawi.

Noun

hay

1. dance
   • 1689 James Farewell, The Irish Hudibras, or, Fingallian prince taken from the sixth book of Virgil's Æneids, and adapted to the present times. (Appendix: "Alphabetical Table" of "Fingallian Words, or Irish Phrases"):

Lushootseed

Alternative forms

• haya

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /haɪ/

Verb

hay

1. to know

Malagasy

Etymology 1

Interjection

hay

1. truly!, indeed!

Etymology 2

Participle

hay

1. possible
2. known

Etymology 3

Noun

hay

1. (dialectal) burning

Etymology 4

Adjective

hay

1. (of land) exposed, bare

Etymology 5

Noun

hay

1. (Tankarana) an insect which damages rice crops

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

hay (plural hayes)

1. Alternative form of haye (“net”)

Etymology 2

Interjection

hay

1. Alternative form of hey (“hey”)

Etymology 3

Noun

hay (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of hey (“hay”)

Etymology 4

Pronoun

hay

1. Alternative form of he (“they”)

Etymology 5

Noun

hay

1. Alternative form of heye (“hedge”)

Etymology 6

Verb

hay

1. Alternative form of haven (“to have”)

Middle French

Verb

hay

1. first-person singular present indicative of hayr

Old Galician-Portuguese

Alternative forms

• hai, ai, ay

Etymology

From ha + y, "there is".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈaj]

Verb

hay

1. (impersonal, Galicia) there is, there are

Descendants

• Galician: hai

Further reading

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “aver”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “hay”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG

Somali

Verb

hay

1. to hold, have

Spanish

Etymology

From Old Spanish ha ý (“it has there”) (compare Catalan hi ha and French il y a), from ha, third-person singular present form of aver (“to have”), + ý (locative pronoun, compare modern French y and Catalan hi), from Latin ibī (“there”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈai/ [ˈai̯]
• Rhymes: -ai
• Syllabification: hay
• Homophone: ay

Verb

hay

1. third-person singular present indicative of haber

   there is, there are

Usage notes

Impersonal form of haber, there is or there are, not he is or it was.

Derived terms

Tagalog

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /haj/ [haɪ̯]
• Rhymes: -aj
• Syllabification: hay

Etymology 1

Compare Hokkien 害矣 (hāi--ah).

Interjection

hay (Baybayin spelling ᜑᜌ᜔)

1. Alternative form of ay
2. an expression of fatigue, exhaustion, grief, sorrow, frustration, or the like: sigh

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English high.

Adjective

hay (Baybayin spelling ᜑᜌ᜔)

1. (slang) high on drugs; drugged

   Synonyms: sabog, basag, bogsa

Etymology 3

Noun

hay (Baybayin spelling ᜑᜌ᜔) (obsolete)

1. act of frighting or startling a dog

Derived terms

Further reading

• “hay”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [haj˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [haj˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ha(ː)j˧˧]

Etymology 1

Cognate with Arem hɪː ("to understand").

Verb

hay • (咍, 𫨩, 台, 能)

1. (archaic or literary) to know; to get to know; to learn
   • Phật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh (佛說大報父母恩重經), folio 35a
2. (obsolete, auxiliary) can, could, may, might
   • Phật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh (佛說大報父母恩重經), folio 35a

Adjective

hay

1. (obsolete) able, capable

Usage notes

• The sense of “to know” is now mostly used in fixed expressions, such as đến đâu hay đến đó and cho hay (“to inform”, literally “to let [someone] know”), in the non-literary language.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Adjective

hay • (咍, 𫨩, 台)

1. good, as in useful, inventive, interesting or entertaining; compare tốt (good as in high-quality, skillful or ethical)

   Antonyms: dở, tệ, tồi

   ý hay ― a good idea

Derived terms

Adverb

hay • (𫨩)

1. well

   Antonyms: dở, tệ, tồi

Etymology 3

Adverb

hay

1. often, habitually

Etymology 4

Conjunction

hay • (咍, 台, 能)

1. or

Derived terms

• hay là

See also

• hoặc

Walloon

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /haj/

Interjection

hay

1. go, let us go

Yola

Pronoun

hay

1. Alternative form of hea (“he”)

References

• Kathleen A. Browne (1927) The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol.17 No.2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 130