eye

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• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: ī, IPA^(key): /aɪ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Homophones: ay, aye, I
• Rhymes: -aɪ

From Middle English eye, eie, yë, eighe, eyghe, yȝe, eyȝe, from Old English ēage (“eye”), from Proto-West Germanic *augā, from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”) (compare Scots ee, West Frisian each, Dutch oog, German Auge, Danish øje, Norwegian Bokmål øye, Norwegian Nynorsk auga, Swedish öga), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃okʷ-, *h₃ekʷ- (“eye; to see”).

Other Indo-European cognates include Latin oculus (whence English oculus), Lithuanian akìs, Old Church Slavonic око (oko), Albanian sy, Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps, “(poetic) eye; face”) and ὄσσε (ósse, “eyes”), Armenian ակն (akn), Avestan 𐬀𐬱𐬌 (aši, “eyes”), Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi). Related to ogle.

The uncommon plural form eyen is from Middle English eyen, from Old English ēaġan, nominative and accusative plural of ēaġe (“eye”).

eye (plural eyes or (archaic or dialectal) eyen or (archaic) eyne)

2. An organ through which animals see (“perceive surroundings via light”).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:eye

   Hyponym: ocellus

   Bright lights really hurt my eyes.

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame.  (First Quarto), London: for Thomas Fisher, , published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     To vvhat, my loue, ſhall I compare thine eyne? / Chriſtall is muddy.

   • 1605, The Trial of Chivalry:

     Were it to search the furthest Northern clime / Where frosty Hyems with an ycie Mace / Strikes dead all living things, Ide find it out, / And borrowing fire from those fayre sunny eyne / Thaw Winters frost and warme that dead cold clime: […]

   • 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. ”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. , volume I, London: Edward Moxon , published 1839, →OCLC, page 361:

     Now with a bitter smile, whose light did shine / Like a fiend’s hope upon his lips and eyne, / He said, and the persuasion of that sneer / Rallied his trembling comrades— […]

   • 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Difficulties on Theory”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, , London: John Murray, , →OCLC, page 188:

     It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye to a telescope.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter I, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter XVII, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     [H]is eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue.

   • 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist‎, archived from the original on 7 September 2013:

     The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages.

3. The visual sense.

   The car was quite pleasing to the eye, but impractical.

4. The iris of the eye, being of a specified colour.

   Brown, blue, green, hazel eyes.

   Natalie’s brown eyes looked into Jim’s blue eyes, and the girl and boy flirted.

5. Attention, notice.

   That dress caught her eye.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete. The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of eagerness. The Celebrity as a matter of course was master of ceremonies.

6. The ability to notice what others might miss.

   Synonym: perceptiveness

   He has an eye for talent.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.

7. A meaningful look or stare.

   She was giving him the eye at the bar.

   When the car cut her off, she gave him the eye.

8. Short for private eye.
   • 2003, Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Random House, →ISBN, page 199:

     Far more annoying were the letters from parents of missing daughters and the private detectives who had begun showing up at his door. Independently of each other, the Cigrand and Conner families had hired “eyes” to search for their missing daughters.

9. A hole at the blunt end of a needle through which thread is passed.
10. The oval hole of an axehead through which the axehandle is fitted.
    • 1856 October 18, The People’s Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator, Sydney, N.S.W., page 6, column 1:

      [H]e struck the Duffer a sharp blow on the back of the head with the eye of the axe, and left him stunned and senseless on the earth[.]

12. A fitting consisting of a loop of metal or other material, suitable for receiving a hook or the passage of a cord or line.

    Hyponyms: eyebolt, eye bolt, eyehook, eye hook, eyelet, screweye, screw eye

14. A loop forming part of anything, or a hole through anything, to receive a hook, pin, rope, shaft, etc.; for example, at the end of a tie bar in a bridge truss, through a crank, at the end of a rope, or through a millstone.

    Coordinate terms: boss, ear

15. (US) A burner on a kitchen stove.
16. The relatively calm and clear centre of a hurricane or other cyclonic storm.
17. A mark on an animal, such as a butterfly or peacock, resembling a human eye.
18. The dark spot on a black-eyed pea.
19. A reproductive bud in a potato.
20. (informal) The dark brown centre of a black-eyed Susan flower.
21. That which resembles the eye in relative beauty or importance.
    • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      the very eye of that proverb

    • 1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J M for John Starkey , →OCLC:

      Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts

22. A shade of colour; a tinge.
    • 1664, Robert Boyle, “Experiment XII”, in Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours. , 2nd edition, London: Henry Herringman , published 1670, →OCLC, part III (Containing Promiscuous Experiments about Colours), page 220:

      Red vvith an Eye of Blevv, makes a Purple; and by theſe ſimple Compoſitions again Compounded among themſelves, the Skilful Painter can produce vvhat kind of Colour he pleaſes, and a great many more than vve have yet Names for.

23. One of the holes in certain kinds of cheese.
24. (architecture) The circle in the centre of a volute.
25. (nautical, in the plural) The foremost part of a ship's bows; the hawseholes.
26. (typography) The enclosed counter (“negative space”) of the lower-case letter e.
    • 2022, Hernan Diaz, Trust, Picador (2023):

      The “e” was a bit over-inked, with a blacked-out eye.

27. (go) An empty point or group of points surrounded by one player's stones.
28. (usually in the plural) Opinion, view.

    This victory will make us great in the eyes of the world.

29. (mining) Synonym of pit-eye

• Sranan Tongo: ai

• tapetum lucidum

eye (third-person singular simple present eyes, present participle eyeing or eying, simple past and past participle eyed)

1. (transitive) To carefully or appraisingly observe (someone or something).

   Synonym: gaze (poetic)

   After eyeing the document for half an hour, she decided not to sign it.

   They went out and eyed the new car one last time before deciding.

   • 1859, Fraser’s Magazine, volume 60, page 671:

     Each downcast monk in silence takes / His place a newmade grave around, / Each one his brother sadly eying.

2. (intransitive, obsolete) To appear; to look.
   • c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     My becomings kill me, when they do not eye well to you.

3. (transitive) To remove the reproductive buds from (potatoes).
   • 1996, Food Preparation and Cooking, page 418:

     Once the potatoes have been rumbled they require 'eyeing' with a turning knife or hand peeler.

   • 2012, Bob Vargovcik, Bayonne Boy, page 19:

     My first assignment was eyeing old potatoes. The Siegler brothers would buy potatoes so old they looked like an octopus. My job was to make them look presentable and, of course, sellable.

4. (transitive) To allow (fish eggs) to develop so that the black eye spots are visible.
   • 1927, Appendix to the Journals of the Senate and Assembly of the Forty-Seventh Session of the Legislature of the State of California:

     Eggs were collected from the Taylor Creek, Upper Truckee River, and Blackwood Creek traps and transported to this station to be eyed […]

eye (plural eyes)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter I/i.
   • 2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170:

     It said, in a whispering, buzzing voice, "Gee-you-ess-ess-ay-dash-em-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-em-eye-en-gee-oh-dash-pee-eye-pee-dash-pee-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-pee-eye-en-gee-oh."

   • 2016 CCEB, Communications Instructions Radiotelephone Procedures: ACP125 (G), pages 3–5:

     IED as "eye-ee-dee" instead of "I SPELL India Echo Delta Romeo".

• i

• eff why eye

Probably from rebracketing of a nye as an eye.

eye (plural eyes)

1. A brood.

   an eye of pheasants

• eye on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• human eye on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• eye (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Yee, yee

From Old English eġe, from Proto-West Germanic *agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂égʰos. Doublet of awe.

• eie, eȝe, eȝȝe, eyȝe, eiȝe

• (Early Middle English) IPA^(key): /ˈɛjə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈæi̯(ə)/
• Rhymes: -æi̯(ə)

eye (uncountable)

1. awe, reverence, worshipfulness
2. horror, panic
3. that which creates reverence; the exercise of power
4. that which incites awe
5. that which incites terror

• eifulle (rare)
• eiliche (rare)

• English: ey (obsolete)

• “eie, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-11.

eye

1. Alternative form of eie

eye

1. Alternative form of ey (“egg”)

• IPA^(key): /e.jé/

eyé

1. eye
2. face; surface

• IPA^(key): /e.jè/

eyè

1. nose

eye

1. very, of course, emphatic adverb

eye

1. hey!

• Brewer, Forrest, Brewer, Jean G. (1962) Vocabulario mexicano de Tetelcingo, Morelos: Castellano-mexicano, mexicano-castellano (Serie de vocabularios indígenas Mariano Silva y Aceves; 8)‎ (in Spanish), México, D.F.: El Instituto Lingüístico de Verano en coordinación con la Secretaría de Educación Pública a través de la Dirección General de Internados de Enseñanza Primaria y Educación Indígena, published 1971, page 126

Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éy-ós, nominalized form of *h₁ey- (“to go”), where the semantics developed along the lines of the animals being herded. For similar etymological and semantic developments, compare Hittite iyant (“sheep”) and Oscan eítuvam (“wealth”) (originally meaning livestock, for which semantically compare Latin pecunia).

eye ?

1. sheep, goat

• Adams, Douglas Q. (2013) “eye”, in A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 98

eye

1. (third-person singular pronoun)

• yèyé

Possibly related to etymology 2, but this is used in slightly more formal settings.

• IPA^(key): /è.jé/

èye

1. (Ekiti) mother, mom

   Synonyms: ìyá, ùyá, màmá, mọ́mì, abiyamọ, iye, ìmọ̀mọ́, màámi, ìmọ́ọ̀

2. a term of familiarity or respect for an older woman, or older female relative, or a priestess

   Synonyms: ìyá, màmá, yèyé

Perhaps related to Edo iye and Yorùbá iye

• IPA^(key): /è.jē/

èyé

1. (Ekiti) mother, mom

   Synonyms: ìyá, ùyá, màmá, mọ́mì, abiyamọ, iye, ìmọ̀mọ́, màámi, ìmọ́ọ̀

2. a term of familiarity or respect for an older woman, or older female relative

   Synonyms: ìyá, màmá, yèyé