Talk:abies
RFV discussion: April 2022–February 2023
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This is claimed to be the third-person singular of aby, but that entry gives abys as the correct form. It doesn't seem like the verb was used much in this form, so it could be hard to verify either way. (I can't think of any other English verbs in -VCy where the final -y is a stressed diphthong from which to make an analogy, but that might be more of a TR question.) This, that and the other (talk) 11:28, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
- See Category:Rhymes:English/aɪ/2 syllables for a few. Etymologically, they seem to be all from Old French- so they probably aren't good models for an Old English inheritance like this one. Chuck Entz (talk) 12:34, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
- I'm not really sure what to do here. This is an exceptional situation where the regular form of an English verb is unclear. I did some searching in EEBO some months ago for various third person singular forms of this verb, such as abies, abys, abyes (noting that OED lemmatises this verb at abye), abyeth, abieth, and I seem to recall coming up with nothing. Perhaps the verb was never attested in this form at all. This, that and the other (talk) 11:07, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
- @This, that and the other: if you did a search and found nothing, sounds like this term fails verification. — Sgconlaw (talk) 11:43, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
- Yes but (a) these terms are very difficult to search for and it's likely I missed something, so I'd like a second opinion, and (b) what to list at aby under "third-person singular"? This, that and the other (talk) 11:54, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
- @This, that and the other: if you did a search and found nothing, sounds like this term fails verification. — Sgconlaw (talk) 11:43, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
- I can't find a single instance of this spelling of this verb (as opposed to abye) being used in the third-person singular present tense. Comparison to by#Noun, plural bys, suggests abys is not impossible, but comparison to ally, 3sg allies, etc suggests abies is also plausible. I see two possibilities: mention both forms (perhaps with a usage note saying neither is attested), or mention neither form, with a usage note explaining no 3sg is attested, e.g. like this. - -sche (discuss) 20:05, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
RFV Failed. All forms other than aby, abye, abuy, abie, and abought (per OED quotations) should be deleted with a note explaining the lack of attestation. Ioaxxere (talk) 03:56, 9 February 2023 (UTC)