plural Y's, Ys /waɪz/, the twenty-fifth letter of the modern and twenty-third of the ancient Roman alphabet, representing ultimately Y, Υ (u psilon) of the Greek alphabet, a differentiated form of the primitive V which has given also U and V. It was adopted first in the Latin alphabet in the form V to express /u/ and /w/, and was later (after b.c. 100) readopted in the form Y to represent the Υ of borrowed Greek words. The name of the letter in the Romanic languages, ‘Greek i’ (e.g. French i grec, Spanish i griega), and the German name ipsilon, Italian ipsilon, -onne (†yssilonne), and Portuguese ypsilon, preserve the fact of its Greek origin. The English name wy /waɪ/ is of obscure origin.The earliest available English evidence is in the manuscript of the Ormulum, col. 109 (l. 4320), where ƿı is written, apparently in the first hand (c1200), over ẏ, the fifth letter of the name IESOẎS. Nothing certain is known about the historical relationship of the English name to the name vı or uı attributed to ‘the Greek y’ in the grammatical treatise (a1150) contained in the Edda, or to the ui or gui of some Old French systems. Gawin Douglas rhymes Y with sky (see quot. 1513 at sense 2 below); other early references to the name are:—

1574 J. Baret Aluearie Y Introd. sig. Lll.ij^v Y hath bene taken for a greeke vowel among our latin Grammarians a great while, which me thinke if we marke well we shall finde to be rather a diphthong: for it appeareth to be compounded of u and i, which both spelled togither soundeth as we write Wy.

1580 W. Bullokar Bk. at Large The olde name of :y: (which is wy).

(1) The letter of which our y is the direct representative occurs from the earliest times in Old English script to express the i-mutation of u. It had various forms ranging from those resembling the Greek u psilon, in which the tops of the limbs turn outwards in opposite directions, to those in which both limbs turn in the same direction, whether to the right (forming an f-like character) or to the left. This last type with the right shank continued leftwards below the line was the form that prevailed in Middle English script, and which, with the top closed (), became identical with the debased forms of þ: see (3) below. Most forms of the Old English y in the earliest manuscripts are written with a superposed dot, which is also a feature of the y in contemporary manuscripts of Latin texts. The dot fell out of use towards the end of the eighth century, but was revived towards the end of the tenth. The dotted y continued throughout the Middle English period, and was carried into some of the early founts of type (e.g. in The Book of St. Albans of 1486 the dotted y is employed in the larger, but not in the smaller type).

In later (West Saxon) Old English, y was written alternatively for i, e.g. as representing older ie, as in cyle, ongytan, yld, for ciele, ongietan, ield; and, as its function of expressing rounded i /ʏ//y/ was usurped by u in imitation of French usage, it became ultimately a possible substitute for vocalic i in any position. This use had become established by the middle of the 13th century, and, thenceforward, with the deterioration of script, y came to serve as a convenient means of breaking up an ambiguous series of minims produced by a succession of i, u, n, m, as nym, myn, ynumen, unymete, for nim, min, inumen, unimete. This free use of y was continued through the Middle English period, and the tradition lasted for a long period after the introduction of printing; but i was gradually restored to its place, the resulting orthographic convention being that y is retained: (i) for final i-sounds, as in fly, family, daily, destroy (formerly spelt also flie and flye, familie and familye, etc.), only alien words being spelt with final i; (ii) in Greek words, representing υ, as in hymn; (iii) before i, in inflectional forms of verbs ending in y or ie, as flying, lying, tying, not fliing, etc.; (iv) in the plural of nouns ending in y preceded by another written vowel, as boy boys, ray rays, alley alleys, money moneys (but monies is still common, and vallies, monkies, etc. were equally so until recently). Particular usages, not falling under these categories, are the use of y to distinguish dye from die, and the fluctuation between flyer and flier, tyre and tire, gipsy and gypsy, tiro and tyro, siphon and syphon, cipher and cypher, silva and sylva (see each word for the special circumstances).

In some texts y is found substituted for i = French j /dʒ/; e.g. in Shoreham's Poems manyour is written for maniour = manger, in Ayenbite yyoyned for yioyned joined, in the Camb. MS. of the 15th century version of Guy of Warwick occur yoye, yolye, yelowse, harbenyoure, soyourned = joy, jolly, jealous, harbinger, sojourned.

(2) About the middle of the 13th century y began to be used to represent the voiced palatal spirant /j/, taking the place of the character ȝ (called yogh n.) in one of its values. ȝ is a loosely written form of Old English g, which had become appropriated in early Middle English script to the guttural and palatal spirants, while the continental g was appropriated to the voiced guttural and palatal stops (though in some manuscripts g stands for all these sounds: cf. G n.). The practice of contemporary scribes varied considerably, some restricting y to its vocalic use, others using it freely for both consonant and vowel. Northern scribes of the 14th and 15th centuries often write yh for y initially, as yhit, yheyt, yet, yher year, yhoung young.

In many late Middle English scripts ȝ became identical in form with z, and it was retained by Scottish printers in this form; e.g. printed zer, fenzeit, Dalziel, represent yer year, fenyeit feigned, Dalyiel: see further s.v. Z.

(3) Another value of y arises from the assimilation of y and þ, the runic thorn (see th n.¹), which had become indistinguishable from each other in some manuscripts of the early 14th century (e.g. the Cotton MS. of Cursor Mundi). After 1400 þ fell more and more out of use, and in some scripts was represented only by the y-form in the compendia y^e, y^t or y^at, y^ei, y^m, y^u = the, that, they, them, thou, and the like, many of which continued to be extensively employed in manuscript in the 17th and 18th centuries. Two of these, y^e or ye, y^t or ?, were retained in printers' types during the 15th and 16th centuries, but often with a form of y somewhat different from that used in other positions. (In Sir John Cheke's translation of the New Testament, a dotted y stands for th.) In manuscript (e.g. in letter-writing) y^e lasted well into the 19th century. It is still often used pseudo-archaically, jocularly, or colloquially (pronounced as ye), e.g. in Lewis Carroll's ‘Ye Carpette Knyghte’, and in shop-signs like ‘Y^e Olde Booke Shoppe’.c1340 Cursor M. 17033–4 (Vesp. A.iii) f. 94^v And es naman y^t es in skil yat agh sai her again.14.. Agincourt Song (Pepys) Þat tounn he wan and mad a fray Yat fraunce xal rewe tyl domysday.c1500 Promptorium Parvulorum (Middle Hill MS.) 535 (note) ¹ Yanne or thann,..Yowtyng or thowtyng.c1500 Promptorium Parvulorum (MS. note in Brit. Mus. Copy of Pynson's ed.) All these Y. stande for Th. acordinge as the Saxon caracte was in this sorte þ.?1508 Bk. Good Counsel to King (Chepman & Myllar) sig. a Thou ryall king all yis suld reull yi realme.1551 W. Pickering Let. 27 Oct. in Facsimiles National MSS (1865) II. l At Pares the 27 of Octobre.1665 in W. Mure Select. Family Papers Caldwell (1854) I. 62 Without any interuption yrupon.1665 in W. Mure Select. Family Papers Caldwell (1854) I. 63 It may be clearlie answered yrto.1680 P. Henry Diaries & Lett. (1882) 292 Bo[reatton] where l^d Paget y^en was.1705 J. Rogers Let. 18 Aug. in E. J. Climenson Elizabeth Montagu (1906) I. 145 I had notice by my Mother yt you had ordered me £40.1741 Duke of Portland Let. 25 Apr. in E. J. Climenson Elizabeth Montagu (1906) I. 76 j am to inform you yt ye Duchess continues as well as can be, and ye Babe too.1745 Mrs. S. Robinson Let. 25 Dec. in E. J. Climenson Elizabeth Montagu (1906) I. vi. 225 [He] told y^m yt ye French was landing in the Marsh.

Pronunciation. The vocalic sounds now normally expressed by y are:—

1. /ɪ/, as in hymn /hɪm/, synonymy /sɪˈnɒnɪmɪ/, silly /ˈsɪlɪ/; in unstressed syllables there is more or less reduction or obscuration.

2. /aɪ/, as in my /maɪ/, deny /dɪˈnaɪ/.

3. /aɪə/, as in lyre /laɪə(r)/.

4. /ɜː/, as in myrtle /ˈmɜːt(ə)l/.

5. /ə/, as in satyr /ˈsætə(r)/.

With a, e, o, u, it forms combinations having special values:—ay (final) = /eɪ/, as in lay /leɪ/, essay /ˈɛseɪ/, = /aɪ/ in aye /aɪ/; = /iː/ in quay /kiː/, = /ɛ/ in says /sɛz/; ey = /eɪ/, as in obey /əʊˈbeɪ/, convey /kənˈveɪ/, = /ɪ/, as in alley /ˈælɪ/, honey /ˈhʌnɪ/, = /aɪ/ in eye /aɪ/ and its derivatives, = /ɛə/ in eyre /ɛə(r)/; oy = /ɔɪ/, as in boy /bɔɪ/, annoy /əˈnɔɪ/; uy (rare) = /aɪ/ in buy /baɪ/.

The consonantal sound expressed by y is denoted in this Dictionary by /j/, as yew, you /juː/.

C1. General attributive.

C2.

C3. Also in names of natural structures.

(Abbreviations cited here with full stops are frequently used without them.)