Ey

Part of speech: interjection

Definitions

1. An informal interjection spoken to get someone's attention or to show mild surprise or emphasis in casual speech
2. A casual exclamation, similar to hey, used to attract notice or to register a sudden reaction in conversation
3. A colloquial interjection that people utter to draw attention to themselves or to react with mild astonishment

Etymology: The word "ey" is a plural in its own right, as the definition in the source shows: it is the old form of "eggs" in the phrase "a box of ten eyren." Its own history is a story of replacement. "Ey" descends from Old English "ǣġ," and that Old English form itself came from Proto-Germanic "*ajją," meaning "egg," which traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root. In the 16th century, this native form was displaced by "egg," a borrowing from Old Norse, and "ey" faded out of ordinary use. The word that replaced it is also the one that now dominates English, so the older term survives mainly in dialect and in a few lingering phrases.