Yee

Part of speech: interjection

Definitions

1. A family name of Chinese origin, borne by many people across the world ; a cry of excitement or joy, often shouted in a rowdy or celebratory way
2. A surname common among people of Chinese descent ; a loud shout expressing delight, excitement or high spirits
3. Used as a family name of Chinese origin ; an interjection voiced to show exuberance, as in a whoop of celebration

Etymology: The spelling "ye" in "Ye Olde Shoppe" is not a pronoun at all. Early printers, lacking a letter for the Old English thorn (þ), substituted the letter y, which looked similar in blackletter type, so "þe" ("the") was printed as "ye". The abbreviated form yͤ kept appearing in manuscripts long after "th" had replaced thorn elsewhere, and this spelling survived in manuscripts into the 18th century. The word was then revived on purpose. In the 19th century, British shopkeepers and writers used "Ye" as a deliberate antiquarian touch, which gave rise to shop names like "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe." Here the "y" is a fake archaism: the sign-writers were imitating old printing, and their "Olde" adds a second layer of invented quaintness, since the "e" in "Olde" was never part of the medieval spelling. The emphatic "yee" is simply a later spelling of this same "ye" when it was pronounced as "the" in those shop names, with the vowel stretched for effect.