• IPA^(key): /i/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• -e, -ey, -ie
• -i- (when followed by another suffix)

From Middle English -y, -i, from Old English -iġ (“-y, -ic”, suffix), from Proto-West Germanic *-g, from Proto-Germanic *-īgaz (“-y, -ic”), from Proto-Indo-European *-kos, *-ikos, *-iḱos (“-y, -ic”).

Cognate with Scots -ie (“-y”), West Frisian -ich (“-y”), Dutch -ig (“-y”), Low German -ig (“-y”), German -ig (“-y”), Swedish -ig (“-y”), Gothic -𐌹𐌲𐍃 (-igs, “-y”), Latin -icus (“-y, -ic”), Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós), Sanskrit -इक (-ika). Doublet of -ac and -ic.

-y

2. Added to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives meaning “having the quality of”, either “involving the referent” or “analogous to it”.

   ‎mess + ‎-y → ‎messy

   ‎mouse + ‎-y → ‎mousy

   ‎blue + ‎-y → ‎bluey

   ‎clay + ‎-y → ‎clayey

   ‎tree + ‎-y → ‎treey

   ‎hole + ‎-y → ‎holey

   ‎sponge + ‎-y → ‎spongy

   ‎cake + ‎-y → ‎caky

   ‎dice + ‎-y → ‎dicey

   ‎guts + ‎-y → ‎gutsy

   • 2003, Cory Doctorow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom‎^[1], Macmillan, →ISBN:

     Tim keeps trying to make it all more impressionistic, less computer-y.

3. Added to verbs to form adjectives meaning "inclined to".

   ‎run + ‎-y → ‎runny

   ‎panic + ‎-y → ‎panicky

   ‎twiddle + ‎-y → ‎twiddly

• This suffix is extremely productive and can be added to almost any word. When the resulting word is not perceived to be an established or formal word (but rather a nonce word or a casualism), a hyphen is often used before the suffix (sandcastle → sandcastle-y, tomato-y, etc.); this is sometimes also used when an established term is used very literally, as a form of clarification (health → health-y (“relating to health”), distinct from healthy (“in a state of wellness”)).
• The final consonant is doubled just like any other vowel suffix. if -> iffy.
• For nouns and adjectives ending in Y, -ey is added. For example, clay -> clayey.
• Nouns and adjectives ending in a silent E often drop this. For example, ease -> easy.
• A few long-established words ending with this suffix have distinctive spellings, such as wintry and fiery, which English learners might misspell as *wintery and *firey.

• (form “having quality of” adjectives, denoting “involving the referent”): -al, -an, -ial, -ian, -ly, -ous
• (form “having quality of” adjectives, denoting “analogous to the referent”): -esque, -ish, -like, -ly, -oid

• (antonym(s) of “form “having quality of” adjectives”): -less

Note: translations of English words ending in -y do not necessarily end in the suffixes listed below.

Cognate with Scots -ie, being inherited directly from the same source Middle English -ie, -i, from Old English -iġ (“-ie, -y”, diminutive suffix), possibly from Proto-West Germanic *-ij-, *-j- (diminutive suffix).

Not related with Dutch -je, -ie, regional Low German -je, which are from Proto-West Germanic *-ikīn (English -kin as in lambkin), nor with German -i, which is from Proto-West Germanic *-īn (English -en as in maiden). The vowel /i/ has an onomatopoeic quality to it, which may reinforce its occurrence in diminutives.

• -ie, -ey, -ee

-y

2. Forming diminutive nouns.

   granny, pinny, tummy

4. Forming familiar names, pet names, nicknames and terms of endearment.

   Andy, Billy, Johnny, Jonesy, lovey

6. Added for metrical reasons to songs, often in children's music where it may carry diminutive associations.

• (diminutive): mini-, micro-, nano-, -ette, -ee, -icle/-cule/-ule/-ole

Note: translations of English words ending in -y do not necessarily end in the suffixes listed below.

From Middle English -y, -ie, -ee, -e, from Anglo-Norman and Middle French -ie and -é, from Latin -ia, -ium, -tās, Ancient Greek -ίᾱ (-íā), -ειᾰ (-eiă), -ιον (-ion). Cognate (as far as Latin -ia is involved) with German -ei and Dutch -ij.

-y

2. Forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state.

   ‎modest + ‎-y → ‎modesty

   ‎honest + ‎-y → ‎honesty

   ‎-nym + ‎-y → ‎-nymy

   as in ‎toponym + ‎-y → ‎toponymy

   ‎-logue + ‎-y → ‎-logy

   as in ‎analogue + ‎-y → ‎analogy

3. Used in the name of some locations which end in -ia in Latin.

   Italy, Germany, Saxony, Hungary, Sicily, Lombardy, Tuscany, Albany, Brittany, Gascony, Burgundy, Picardy, Normandy, Romandy, Savoy, Muscovy, Tartary, Arcady, Thessaly, Troy, Turkey.

• -ery

Note: translations of English words ending in -y do not necessarily end in the suffixes listed below.

Inherited from Middle English -y, -ie, for earlier -ien, from the Old English weak class 2 infinitival suffix -ian, -iġan, by syncope from earlier *-ōjan, North Sea Germanic form of Proto-West Germanic *-ōn, from Proto-Germanic *-ōną; reinforced by the suffix -ian, -ġan in Old English verbs of weak class 1 with roots ending in -r (and the exceptional strong class 6 verb swerian). Compare -en (infinitive ending).

• -ee

-y

1. (West Country, obsolete) Denotes the infinitive of verbs when used intransitively.
   • June 1746, “An Exmoor Scolding”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 16, London: Edward Cave, page 354:

     But thee, thee wut ruckee, and ſquattee, and doatee in the chimly coander lick an axwaddle; and wi’ the zame tha wut rakee up, and gookee, and tell doil, tell dildrams and buckingham jenkins.

   • 1886, Frederic Thomas Elworthy, “Gig, Gig-mill”, in The West Somerset Word-Book, volume 1, London: Trübner & Co., page 284:

     Where's your Tom now? Au! he do worky down to factory— he've a-workèd to the gig's two year

   • 2008 March 18 [c. 1955], Suzanne Wagner, “English dialects in the Southwest: morphology and syntax”, in Bernd Kortmann, Clive Upton, editors, Varieties of English, volume 1: The British Isles, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, →DOI, →ISBN, page 432:

     d. wiː də ˈbɽɪŋ æʊɽ ˈʃiːp ɪn l̴ami / ‘We bring our sheep in (to) lamb.’ (36 Co 6, book I)

• This suffix can be added to any verb regardless of its class in Old or Middle English.

• IPA^(key): /-j/ [-j]

-y (clitic)

1. Used to form an interrogative copulative sentence: is it?

   Qafár af macáy? ― What is the Afar language?

• IPA^(key): /-j/ [-j]

-y (clitic)

1. Used to join together noun phrases: and, also
   • Saytun Qhuraan kee kay maqnah tarjamaty Qafar afal tani [The clear Qur'an and its explanation translated into the Afar language]‎^[2], Suurat Al-Faatica, verse 1:

     Fulte Racmattaay, Gunê Racmattale Yallih Migaaqal Qimbisa.

     I begin in the name of God, who gives mercy and surpasses mercy.

• When following a short vowel, -y lengthens that vowel:

  ‎gaalá (“camel”) + ‎-y → ‎gaaláay (“and the camels”)

• E. M. Parker, R. J. Hayward (1985) An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN, page 282; 292
• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015) L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎^[3], Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis), page 447

• -ye

• IPA^(key): /i/

-y

1. him, her, it (third-person singular indirect pronoun)

   Da-y pan

   Give him bread

It is always spelled with the hyphen, unlike other pronouns in the language.

• -yos, -ys (third-person plural indirect pronoun)

-y (adverb-forming suffix)

1. -ly: from adjectives forms adverbs

   ‎logický + ‎-y → ‎logicky

• -y in Slovník afixů užívaných v češtině, 2017

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /iː/
  • Conventional anglicization: -y

1. (Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian) Forms the plural imperative of verbs, particularly weak verbs.
2. (Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian) Optionally used to form the subjunctive of weak verbs.

The plural imperative can also appear without this suffix, in a form identical to the singular imperative.

1. Forms agent nouns from verbs.

1. (Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian) Optionally marks the masculine imperfective active participle, intervening between the stem and the gender/number endings.

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of -y  

-j

1. (Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian) Optionally marks the masculine singular perfective passive participle of strong verbs, intervening between the stem and the gender/number endings.

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of -y  

-w	-w

1. (Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian) Optionally marks the perfective passive participle of weak verbs, intervening between the stem and the gender/number endings.
2. (Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian) Optionally marks the perfective relative form of weak verbs, intervening between the stem and the gender/number endings.
3. (Late Egyptian) Marks the perfective passive participle of mostly third-weak transitive verbs, following the stem.
4. (Late Egyptian) Occasionally marks the perfective active participle of mostly third-weak transitive verbs, following the stem.

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of -y  

-yꜣ	-yt
Late Egyptian	Late Egyptian

1. (Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian) Rarely marks the imperfective relative form of all verbs, intervening between the stem and the gender/number endings.

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of -y  

-w	-w

• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 328–329, 354.
• Junge, Friedrich (2005) Late Egyptian Grammar: An Introduction, second English edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, page 66

-y

1. Front vowel variant of -u.

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /-y/, [-y]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /-y/, [-y]

-y

1. Front vowel variant of -u

-y

1. alternative form of -i (used after “hard” consonants)

From Old English -iġ, from Proto-West Germanic *-g, from Proto-Germanic *-gaz, from Proto-Indo-European *-kos. Doublet of -ik.

• -e, -eg, -ege, -ey, -i, -ich, -iche, -ie, -ig, -ige, -iȝ, -iȝe, -ik, -ike, -ye

• IPA^(key): /-iː/

-y

2. Designates an adjective, in many cases formed by being appended to a noun.

• English: -y, -ie, -ey
• Scots: -ie, -y

• “-i,, suf.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 20 June 2018.
• “-i(e, suf.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 20 June 2018.

-y

1. alternative form of -yf

-y

1. alternative form of -ie

-y

1. alternative form of -ien (infinitival suffix)

• -i (“after consonants”)

-y (plural -iṭ)

1. Used to form the imperative mood of verbs

• María de los Angeles Colós, José Guzman, and John Peabody Harrington (1930s) Chochenyo Field Notes (Survey of California and Other Indian Langauges)‎^[4], Unpublished

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *-ъjь, the definite form of hard-stem adjectives. See *jь.

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /iː/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /i/

-y

1. forms adjectives

• Polish: -y

Inherited from Old Polish -y.

• IPA^(key): /ɘ/
• Rhymes: -ɘ
• Syllabification: [please specify syllabification manually]
• Homophones: y, -y-

-y

1. forms adjectives