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in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Translingual
Symbol
aby
- (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Aneme Wake.
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English abyen, abien, abiggen, from Old English ābyċġan (“to buy; pay for; buy off; requite; recompense; redeem; perform; execute”), from Proto-Germanic *uzbugjaną, equivalent to a- + buy. Cognate with Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌱𐌿𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (usbugjan). Not related to abide.
Pronunciation
Verb
aby (simple past and past participle abought, no other forms attested in Modern English)
- (transitive)
- (archaic) To pay the penalty for (something); to atone for, to make amends.
- Synonym: make up
1607 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], The Knight of the Burning Pestle, London: [Nicholas Okes] for Walter Burre, , published 1613, →OCLC, Act III, signature G, recto:Foole-hardy Knight, full soone thou shalt aby / This fond reproach, thy body will I hang, [Hee takes down / his pole.] / And loe vpon that string thy teeth shall hang: Prepare thy selfe, for dead soone shalt thou bee
- (archaic, figuratively) To pay (something) as a penalty, to atone for; to suffer (something).
- Synonym: sustain
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 38, page 455:Who dyes the vtmoſt dolor doth abye, / But who that liues, is lefte to waile his loſſe: / So life is loſſe, and death felicity.
- (obsolete except Scotland) To endure or tolerate (something); to experience.
- Synonyms: brook, go on, hold on, put up with; see also Thesaurus:persist, Thesaurus:tolerate
- (obsolete) To pay for (something); to buy.
- Synonyms: procure, purchase; see also Thesaurus:buy
- (intransitive, obsolete)
- To pay the penalty; to atone.
- Synonyms: expiate, propitiate
- To endure; to remain.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 3, pages 494–495:So long as breath, and hable puiſſaunce / Did natiue corage vnto him ſupply, / His pace he freſhly forward did aduaunce, / And carried her beyond all ieopardy, / But nought that wanteth reſt, can long aby.
Usage notes
The verb is almost always encountered with a modal verb, as in shall aby, could aby, etc. The gerund abuying of the alternative spelling abuy is found in one text; see that entry.
References
- ^ Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief; William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “aby”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 11.
- ^ “aby, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
Anagrams
Czech
Etymology
Inherited from Old Czech aby, from Proto-Slavic *aby. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + by.
Pronunciation
Particle
aby
- Denotes desire or wish; if only; had better
- Synonyms: kdyby, kéž by
- Už aby tu byli. ― I can't wait for them to come..
- Jenom aby! ― Let's hope!
Conjunction
aby
- so that, in order to, so
Inflection
Further reading
- aby in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
- aby in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
Lower Sorbian
Etymology
Univerbation of až (“that”) + by (“would”)
Pronunciation
Verb
aby (defective, invariable)
- that… would
Further reading
- Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928), “aby”, in Słownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague: ОРЯС РАН, ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, 2008
- Starosta, Manfred (1999), “aby”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
Old Czech
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *aby. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + by.
Pronunciation
Particle
aby
- Denotes desire or wish; if only; had better
Conjunction
aby
- Introduces a subordinate clause expressing doubt.
- Introduces a subordinate clause with subjunctive meaning; let, may
- so that, in order to
- Introduces a subordinate clause with admissive meaning; even if, though
Inflection
Descendants
References
Old Polish
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *aby. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + by. First attested in the 15th century.
Pronunciation
Conjunction
aby
- to, in order to, so that (connects sentences either to express the goal of a speaker, when the speaker wishes to communicate a command or wish)
- even though, although
- if
Particle
aby
- may, I wish, if only
Descendants
References
Polish
Etymology
Inherited from Old Polish aby. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + by.
Pronunciation
Conjunction
aby
- to, in order to, so that (connects sentences either to express the goal of a speaker, when the speaker wishes to communicate a command or wish)
- Synonyms: by, żeby, ażeby
- Mówię po to, aby nie było cicho. ― I am speaking so that it isn't quiet.
- Chcę, abyś jutro przyszedł. ― I want you to come tomorrow.
- to (used to connect a sequence of actions)
- Synonyms: by, żeby, ażeby
- Usiadł, aby znowu wstać. ― He sat down to get right back up again.
- so long as (used to express a wish for anything)
- Zrób to byle jak, aby szybciej ― Do it any which way, as long as it's faster.
- just to, for the sake of
- Czytał aby czytał ― He read just to read
Declension
Particle
aby
- (colloquial) expresses the speaker's certainty of their statement; happen to, isn't?
- Near-synonyms: czasami, czasem, przypadkiem
- Aby tam będzie? ― Do you really think he'll be there?
Derived terms
Trivia
According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), aby is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 110 times in scientific texts, 81 times in news, 113 times in essays, 89 times in fiction, and 37 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 430 times, making it the 108th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.
Further reading
- aby in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
- aby in Polish dictionaries at PWN
- Maria Renata Mayenowa; Stanisław Rospond; Witold Taszycki; Stefan Hrabec; Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023), “aby”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
- “ABY”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 07.05.2008
- Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814), “aby”, in Słownik języka polskiego, volume 1, page 3
- Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861), “aby”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
- J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1900), “aby”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 1, Warsaw, page 4
Scots
Adverb
aby
- Doric form of abye (“ago, past”)
References
- “aby” in Eagle, Andy, editor, The Online Scots Dictionary, 2016.
Silesian
Etymology
Inherited from Old Polish aby. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + by.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈabɨ/
- Rhymes: -abɨ
- Syllabification: a‧by
Conjunction
aby
- denotes aim or goal; to, in order to
- Synonyms: ażby, by, coby, iżeby, żeby
Further reading
- ^ Ida Kurcz (1990), “aby”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 1, Kraków; Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 1