deyen

Middle English

Etymology 1

Probably borrowed from Old Norse deyja, from Proto-Germanic *dawjaną.

Inheritance from a Old English *dīegan (from the same Proto-Germanic source) is formally possible, but the rarity of deyen's West Germanic cognates and the unlikelihood of a word for a fundamental concept like "to die" being totally unattested make borrowing more likely. The borrowing of -ey- as Early Middle English /eːj/ rather than expected /ɛj/ is probably by analogy with correspondences between /eːj/ and -ey- in inherited vocabulary (such as Middle English teyen:Old Norse teygja); similarly, the weak conjugation has been modelled on wreyen:wreyde. Northern forms such as deghe, dieghe are probably yet another instance of analogy (to forms like wreghe for wreyen).

Alternative forms

daye, deie, deȝe, dey, deye, die, dien, dye, dyen, dyȝe
deien, deiȝe, deiȝen (Early Middle English); deȝenn (Ormulum); dayȝe, deyȝe, dy (Late Middle English)
deyin (Norfolk); de, dee, deghe, dei, dieghe (especially Northern)

Pronunciation

(Early Middle English) IPA^(key): /ˈdeːjən/
(non-Northern) IPA^(key): /ˈdei̯ən/ (earlier), /ˈdiːən/ (later), /ˈdæi̯ən/ (from the past deyd-)
(Northern) IPA^(key): /dei̯/ (earlier), /deː/ (later)

Verb

deyen (third-person singular simple present deyeth, present participle deyende, deyynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle deyed)

(intransitive or with deeth) To die; to cease to be alive:
- 14^th Century, Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Knight's Tale
  That þou ne schuldest deyen of myn honde
  So that you should not die of my hand
1. (theology) To be eternally annihilated.
(intransitive) To finish or terminate; to fail to continue:
1. To die away or fade out (of fire or smoke)
2. To be forgotten; to cease to be remembered.
(intransitive) To suffer extreme fear or pain.

Conjugation

Conjugation of *deyen* (weak in -de/in -ed)
	present tense	past tense
infinitive	(to) deyen, deye

1st-person singular	deye	deyde, deyed
2nd-person singular	deyest	deydest, deyedest
3rd-person singular	deyeth	deyde, deyed
subjunctive singular	deye	deyde, deyed
imperative singular	deye	—

plural¹	deyen, deye	deyden, deyde, deyeden, deyede
imperative plural	deyeth, deye	—

participles	deyynge, deyende	deyd, deyed, ydeyd, ydeyed

¹ Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Descendants

English: die, dye (obsolete)
- → Vietnamese: đai
Geordie: dee
Middle Scots: de, dee, die
- Scots: dee, dey
Yola: dee

References

“dīen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Barnhart, Robert and Steinmetz, Sol, editors (1988), “die¹”, in The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology‎^[1], Bronxville, N.Y.: The H. W. Wilson Co., →ISBN, →OCLC, page 276, column 2.
Dance, Richard (2000), “Is the Verb Die Derived from Old Norse? A Review of the Evidence”, in English Studies, volume 81, number 4, Taylor & Francis, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 368–383
Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany (2019), “deʒe v. (st.)”, in The Gersum Project ⁠‎^[2], University of Cambridge, University of Cardiff, and the University of Sheffield.
d'Ardenne, S[imonne] R. T. O. (1961) [1936], “Etymological Appendix”, in Þe Liflade ant te Passiun of Seinte Iuliene (Early English Text Society; 248), London: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, →OCLC, pages 146-147.
Jordan, Richard (1974), Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica; 218)‎^[3], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., →DOI, § 97, page 119.
Onions, C[harles] T., Friedrichsen, G. W. S., and Burchfield, R[obert] W., editors (1966), “die¹”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology‎^[4], Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 266, column 2; reprinted 1994.
Zettersten, Arne (1965), “deien (inf.)”, in Studies in the dialect and vocabulary of the Ancrene Riwle (Lund Studies in English; 34)‎^[5], Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, →OCLC, page 202.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old English dēagian; by surface analysis, deye (“die”) +‎ -en (infinitive suffix).