rye
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See also: Rye
English
Etymology
From Middle English rie, reighe, from Old English ryġe, from Proto-West Germanic *rugi, from Proto-Germanic *rugiz, from Proto-Indo-European *Hrugʰís.
Germanic cognates include Dutch and West Frisian rogge, Low German Rogg, German Roggen, Rocken, Old Norse rugr (Danish rug, Swedish råg); non-Germanic cognates include Russian рожь (rožʹ) and Latvian rudzi.
Pronunciation
Noun
rye (countable and uncountable, plural ryes)
- A grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder.
- The grass Secale cereale from which the grain is obtained.
- Rye bread.
- (US, Canada) Rye whiskey.
- 1925, John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, 2nd section, page 146:
- “Gimme a shot of rye.” The whiskey stung his throat hot and fragrant.
- 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 159:
- I bought a pint of rye at the liquor counter and carried it over to the stools and set it down on the cracked marble counter.
- 1971, “American Pie”, in American Pie, performed by Don McLean:
- Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey ’n rye/Singin’, "This’ll be the day that I die."
- (US, Canada) A drink of rye.
- 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 17:
- It concerns the gnomelike quality of the average American at a party. I have been to many parties where staid American business men have been transformed by a few ryes or bourbons into unpredictable gremlins out for adventure.
- Caraway (from the mistaken assumption that the whole seeds, often used to season rye bread, are the rye itself)
- Ryegrass, any of the species of Lolium.
- A disease of hawks.
- 1486, Juliana Berners, Book of Saint Albans:
- And if it [vndeꝛ the peꝛch] be grene ſhe engenderith the Ry. The condicion of this euell is this, it wil ariſe in the hede and make the hede to ſwell, ⁊ the iyen all glaymous, and dyrke, and bot it haue helpe: it will downe in to the legges, and maake the legges to rancle, and if it goo fro the legges in to the hede a gayne, thi hawke is bot looſt.
- 1618, Symon Latham, Latham's Falconry:
- Of all the diseases that belongs to these Hawkes, there bee onely three that they bee most subiect vnto, which is the Rye, the Crampe, and the Craye.
Coordinate terms
- (Cereals) cereal; barley, fonio, maize/corn, millet, oats, rice, rye, sorghum, teff, triticale, wheat
Derived terms
Translations
the grass Secale cereale or its grains as food
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rye whisky — see rye whisky
rye bread — see rye bread
carraway — see carraway
ryegrass — see ryegrass
Anagrams
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old English ryge, from Proto-West Germanic *rugi.
Pronunciation
Noun
rye (plural ryes)
Descendants
References
- “rīe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Noun
rye f (definite singular rya, indefinite plural ryer, definite plural ryene)
Related terms
References
- “rye” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.