Forms: 3–5 ey, 5 ei, 7 eigh, 7–9 aye, 6– ay. [In the later ay me! adopted from, or influenced by, F. ahi, aï, It. ahi; cf. OF. aymi! It. ahime! Sp. ay de mi! The ME. ey, ei was probably a natural ejaculation; nothing similar is found in OE.: the MHG. and mod.G. ey! is probably of independent development; and though there is greater possibility of its being an adoption of OF. aï, this would almost certainly have given ay, ai, which are not found even as variants in ME. The modern northern dial. ay! eh! or eigh! (ē) is probably the ME. ey!, but may be merely the earlier a!, as OE. wá is now wae (= wē) in the north.]
1. = Ah! O! (Now the common northern exclamation of surprise, invocation, earnestness.)
1340. Ayenb., 105. Ey god, huo þet couþe wel al þane zang, hou he ssolde vinde uayre notes.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. T., 453. Ey, Goddis precious dignite!
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 890. Eigh you mock me.
1863. Mrs. Toogood, Yorksh. Dial., Ay my word! I am glad to see you.
2. Ay me! = Alas! Ah me!—an ejaculation of regret, sorrow, pity.
1591. Spenser, Virg. Gnat, 353. Ay me, that thankes so much should faile of meed.
1671. Milton, Samson, 331. Ay me, another inward grief awak’t.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Poems, II. 29. Ay me! how dread can look the Dead.
1860. Tennyson, Tithonus. Ay me! ay me! the woods decay and fall.
b. substantively. The ejaculation as an expression of sorrow, etc.
1607. Beaumont, Wom. Hater, III. i. Draw Sonnets from the melting lovers brain; Ayme’s, and Elegies.
1633. T. Adams, Comm. 2 Pet. i. 6. Aches and aye-mes are incident to intemperate houses.
