Contextualizebeta

hey

intj
/heɪ/

Etymology

From Middle English hey, hei, also without h- in ey, from Old English *hē, ēa (interjection), attested as first element in hēlā, ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”). Cognate with Dutch hé, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Old Norse, Icelandic and Norwegian hei (“hey”), Polish hej (“hey, hello”), Romanian hei, Russian эй (ej, “hey”); see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ဟေး (he:), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Mandarin 哎 (āi), and various sound-alikes as Ancient Greek εἶα (eîa) and Latin eia, eho, Sanskrit हे (he). See also hello.

  1. inherited from *hē✻
  2. inherited from hey

Definitions

  1. An exclamation to get attention.

    • Hey, look at this!
    • Hey! Listen!

  2. A protest or reprimand.

    • Hey! Stop that!

  3. An expression of surprise.

    • Hey! This is new!
  4. ›+ 8 more definitions

    1. An informal greeting, similar to hi.

      • Hey! How's it going?

    2. A request for repetition or explanation

      A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion.

      • Hey? How's that?

    3. Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener…

      Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener express an opinion about what has been said.

      • "Who 's a cur - now - hey?"

    4. A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in song lyrics.

      • The chorus is "nana na na, nana na na hey hey hey, goodbye".

    5. To greet with a "hey"

    6. A choreographic figure in which three or more dancers weave between one another, passing…

      A choreographic figure in which three or more dancers weave between one another, passing by left and right shoulder alternately.

    7. Alternative spelling of he (“Hebrew letter”).

    8. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

but hey, heyday, hey hey, hey ho, hey Joe, hey mister, heyo, hey pass, hey presto, hey rube, hey there, hey up, hey ya, like hey-go-mad, stomp clap hey, what the hey, yehey

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for hey. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA