Showing results for "ye"

• objective of thou.

ye

¹ American  

[yee] / ji /

pronoun

1. Archaic, except in some elevated or ecclesiastical prose Literary, or British Dialect.

   1. (used nominatively as the plural of thou especially in rhetorical, didactic, or poetic contexts, in addressing a group of persons or things).

      O ye of little faith; ye brooks and hills.

   2. (used nominatively for the second person singular, especially in polite address).

      Do ye not know me?

   3. (used objectively in the second person singular or plural).

      I have something to tell ye. Arise, the enemy is upon ye!

2. (used with mock seriousness in an invocation, mild oath, or the like).

   Ye gods and little fishes!

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ye ² American  

[thee, yee] / ði, ji /

definite article

Archaic.

1. the.

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ye ¹ British  

/ jɪ, jiː /

pronoun

1. archaic refers to more than one person including the person addressed but not including the speaker

2. Also: ee. dialect refers to one person addressed

   I tell ye

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ye ² British  

/ jiː /

determiner

1. a form of the, used in conjunction with other putative archaic spellings

   ye olde oake

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ye ³ British  

abbreviation

1. Yemen

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Spelling

The word ye2 , as in Ye Olde Booke Shoppe, is simply an archaic spelling of the definite article the. The use of the letter Y was a printer's adaptation of the thorn, þ, the character in the Old English alphabet representing the th- sounds (th) and (th̸) in Modern English; Y was the closest symbol in the Roman alphabet. Originally, the form would have been rendered as  or ye. The pronunciation today is a spelling pronunciation.

Etymology

Origin of ye

before 900; Middle English; Old English gē; cognate with Dutch gij, German ihr, Old Norse ēr, Gothic jus

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ye

Seek ye a picture on the internet: You will observe the RS 5’s wheels most certainly extend to the wheel wells, if not a little bit more.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2026

Its baroque, acoustic sounds of a pastoral countryside in ye olde England mesh disturbingly well with softly sung, darkly opaque lyrics.

From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2026

Burton replied: "You've never been nicked or had ye prints took anyway so doesn't matter".

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2025

Searching for a way back to their inn, they discover, you guessed it, ye olde Craigh na Dun.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2025

Because ye know what I see when a lass is maligned for something she can’t help and yet she still shows up anyway?”

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

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