wye

• why, wy

Attested as wi c. 1200. Of uncertain origin. Perhaps borrowed from Old French ui or gui.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwaɪ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ
• Homophones: y, Y; why (wine–whine merger)

wye (plural wyes)

1. The name of the Latin script letter Y/y.
   • 1984 Waite, Prata & Martin, C (Computer Program Language), p. 190

     Thus first C checks to see if ex and wye are equal. The resulting value of 1 or 0 (true or false) then is compared to the value of zee.

   • 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."

2. A Y-shaped object: a wye level, wye-connected. Especially a Y-shaped connection of three sections of road or railroad track.

   A wye is used to split a single line [hose or cable] into two lines.

   By going around the wye, a train can change direction.

• wye cable
• wye level
• wye switch

• (Latin-script letter names) letter; a, bee, cee, dee, e, ef, gee, aitch, i, jay, kay, el, em, en, o, pee, cue, ar, ess, tee, u, vee, double-u, ex, wye, zee / zed

wye (third-person singular simple present wyes, present participle wying or wyeing, simple past and past participle wyed)

1. (transitive) To make something into a wye (letter Y) shape.

   When a hose line is divided into two or more lines, these lines are known as wyed lines.

2. (transitive, rail transport) To reverse the direction of a train using a wye.

   Since the train didn't have a control cab at the other end, they wyed the train to turn it around for the trip back to the city.

   Committee contend that when these trains are wyed at Springfield, the road passenger crews are performing yard work at that point to eliminate switching by yard crews.

• wye aye

• Wey, wey, yew

• we (Baiap)
• wie (Sesivi)

wye

1. (West Ambryn) water

• Greenhill, S.J., Blust. R, & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271-283.

• we, wee, weghe, weiȝ, weiȝh, weih, whi, whye, wiȝh, wy, wyghe, wyȝ, wyȝe
• qwy (Yorkshire)

Inherited from Old English wiga,^[1] from Proto-West Germanic *wigō, connected to *wīgan (“to war”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈwiː(ə)/, (earlier) /ˈwei̯(ə)/, (later) /ˈweː(ə)/

wye (plural wyes) (North Midland or Yorkshire, poetic)

1. A person, a human being.
2. A male person; a man:
   1. (especially) A (male) warrior or combatant.
   2. A follower or retainer.
   3. A form of address to a man.

• Middle Scots: wy

• waie

From Middle English way, from Old English weġ, from Proto-West Germanic *weg.

• IPA^(key): /wai̯/

wye (plural wyse)

1. way
   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 34:

     Na dicke wye, nar dicka.

     Neither this way, nor that.

   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 55:

     Maake wye.

     Make way.

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 79