▪ I. hey, int. (n.)
(heɪ)
Forms: 3–4 hei, 4–8 hay, 7 haye, 5– hey.
[ME. hei: cf. Du. and Ger. hei, Sw. hej, in sense 1. Cf. also heigh.]
1. a. A call to attract attention; also, an exclamation expressing exultation, incitement, surprise, etc.; sometimes used in the burden of a song with no definite meaning; sometimes as an interrogative (= eh?).
| a 1225 Leg. Kath. 579 Hei! hwuch wis read of se icudd keiser! c 1305 St. Kath. 137 in E.E.P. (1862) 93 Hei traitours, quaþ þemperour, beo ȝe icome herto? 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1445 Ande þay halowed hyghe ful hyȝe and hay! hay! cryed. 14.. Christm. Carol 3 (Mätz.) Hey, hey, hey, hey, The borrys hed is armyd gay. a 1529 Skelton E. Rummyng 168 Hey, dogge, hay, Haue these hogges away! 1610 Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 256 Hey Mountaine, hey. 1712 W. Rogers Voy. 42 Our Musick play'd, Hey Boys up go we! and all manner of noisy paltry Tunes. c 1745 in Ritson Scot. Songs (1794) II. 84 (Jam.) Hey, Johny Coup, are ye waking yet? 1794 Sheridan's Duenna ii. iii, Well, and you were astonished at her beauty, hey? 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) 232 Hey, Solomon, my friend? 1861 Dickens Gt. Expect. xv, You are looking round for Estella? Hey? |
b. hey for ― : an utterance of applause or exultant appreciation of some person or thing (cf. hurrah for!), or of some place which one resolves to reach.
| 1689 Prior Ep. to F. Shepherd, Then hey for praise and panegyric. 1837 Lytton E. Maltrav. 30 We must make a dash at the spoons and forks, and then hey for the money. 1863 Kingsley Water-Bab. ii. (1864) 89 Then hey for boot and horse, lad, And round the world away. 1881 J. Grant Cameronians I. iii. 42 Breakfast at nine, and then—hey for the covers! |
c. as n. A cry of ‘hey!’
| 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1158 Þe hindez were halden in, with hay & war. 1513 Douglas æneis iii. viii. 36 And halsing gan the land with hey and haill. a 1627 Middleton Microcynicon Wks. (Dyce) V. 489 With nailed shoes, and whip⁓staff in his hand, Who with a hey and ree the beasts command. 1790 A. Wilson Wks. (1876) II. 100 Our hechs an' heys are by. |
2. a. In combination with various interjections or other words. (See also next and hey-day.)
| 1519 Four Elements in Hazl. Dodsley I. 20 Sing, frisky jolly, with hey troly lolly, For I see well it is but a folly For to have a sad mind. a 1529 Skelton Agst. Comely Coystrowne 30 Rumbyl downe, tumbyll downe, hey go, now, now! a 1546 Coverdale Goostly Psalmes, Unto Christen Rdr., They shuld be better occupied, then with hey nony nony, hey troly loly, & soch lyke fantasies. c 1560 T. Preston Cambyses in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 236 They can play a new dance called Hey-diddle-diddle. 1562 T. Phaer æneid ix. A a ij, Here is our enemy lo, heylagh, loud clamours than they throw. 1564 Guid & Godly Ball. 204 Hay trix, tryme go trix, vnder the grene wod tre. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. iii. 71 Conuerting all your sounds of woe, Into hey nony nony. 1602 Narcissus (1893) 74 The world, hey dery diddle, goes round without a fiddle. 1606 Choice, Chance etc. (1881) 19 The ploughman..putting vp into..the market, with haye Ree, and who to his horse. 1641 Brome Joviall Crew iii. Wks. 1873 III. 407 Then, hay tosse and laugh all night. 1672 Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Rehearsal v. (Arb.) 129 Hey down, dery down. 1695 Congreve Love for L. iv. xiii, Hey toss! What's the matter now? 1709 Steele Tatler No. 2 ¶2 Hey! Hoop! d'ye hear my damn'd obstrep'rous Spouse? 1711 Swift Wks. (1778) XIII. 380 Hey dazy, will you never have done? 1867 J. Ingelow Poems, Warblings of Blackbirds iv, With a wild sweet cry of pleasure, And a ‘Hey down derry, let's be merry! little girl and boy!’ |
3. In phrases, sometimes treated as words. a. † hey go-bet. The int. hey followed by the phrase go bet (see bet adv.2), which was app., among other things, a call in hunting, and the name of a song and dance; used by Nashe as n., ? ‘one to whom {oqq}hey go bet{cqq} is said’, perh. a person ready at one's bidding. Obs.
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 1213 Dido, The heerde of hertes founden ys anoon With hay goo bet, prik thou, lat goon, lat goon. a 1550 Frere & Boye 300 in Hazl. E.P.P. III. 73 Ye hath made me daunce, maugre my hede Amonge the thornes, hey go bette. 1589 Nashe Martins Months Minde 11 Those whom he counteth his enemies (the worst better than the best of his hey gobetts). .... Hunting Song in Halliwell, But when my lips are very well wet, Then I can sing with the, Heigh, go bet! |
b. hey-go-mad. A phrase expressive of boisterous excitement; sometimes used as adj. dial.
| 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy I. 2 Away they go cluttering like hey-go mad. 1828 Craven Dial., Heigh-go-mad, to be highly enraged. 1854 Dickens Hard T. ii. vi, Yo was hey-go-mad about her, but an hour sin. 1888 Sheffield Gloss., Heigh-go-mad, said of a person who betrays excessively high spirits. |
c. hey-pass. An exclamation of jugglers commanding an article to move: often joined with repass. Hence as a name for the command, and an appellation of a juggler. ? Obs.
| c 1590 Marlowe Faust. xi. 58 Do you hear? you heypass, where's your master? 1593 Nashe Lenten Stuffe 31 Whereof the onely Circes Heypasse and Repasse was that it drewe a thousand ships to Troy to fetch her backe with a pestilence. 1641 Milton Animadv. (1851) 210 You wanted but Hey-passe to have made your transition like a mysticall man of Sturbridge. 1727 Gay Fables xlii. 35 (Jod.) Heigh! pass! 'tis gone. a 1834 Lamb Lett. xvii. To Wordsw. 161 Autumn hath foregone its moralities; they are ‘hey-pass repass’, as in a show-box. |
d. hey presto. A phrase of command by conjurors and jugglers; hence transf. used to connote an instantaneous or magical transformation, or some surprisingly sudden performance; also n. as a name for the command.
| 1731 Fielding Lottery iii. Wks. 1882 VIII. 481 The hammer goes down, Hey Presto! be gone! And up comes the twenty pound. 1761 Garrick Epil. to Hecuba, Hey!—Presto!—I'm in Greece a maiden slain—Now!—stranger still!—a maid, in Drury-Lane! 1873 Mrs. Alexander Wooing o't II. 55 Like some magician come to lift everyone out of the Slough of Despond, with a sort of ‘Hey Presto!’ 1877 Spurgeon Serm. XXIII. 677 Heigh, presto! the thing is done. 1891 A. Lynch Mod. Authors 133 The melodramatic situations, the surprises, hi-prestos, climaxes. |
e. hey, Rube! A rallying call or a cry for help used by circus people. As n., a fight between circus workers and the general public. U.S. slang. (Cf. Reub.)
| 1882 Times (Chicago) 3 Dec. Suppl. 12/4 A canvasman watching a tent is just like a man watching his home. He'll fight in a minute if the outsider cuts the canvas, and if a crowd comes to quarrel he will yell, ‘Hey Rube!’ That's the circus rallying cry, and look out for war when you hear it. 1935 Amer. Mercury XXXV. 229/2 Heyrube: general uprising of spectators. 1939 Sat. Even. Post 25 Mar. 75/2 The expression disappeared forty years ago, along with the old rallying cry, ‘Hey, Rube!’ 1956 H. Gold Man who was not with It (1965) i. 6 We found ourselves with an old-fashioned hey-rube and obliged to move the show on that night. 1962 E. S. Gardner Case of Blonde Bonanza (1967) xv. 182 And ‘Hey Rube’ is a rallying cry for the circus people to unite in a fight against the outsiders? 1973 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 12 Oct. 2/2 There..could be a very interesting hey Rube between incumbent Frances Elford and Ald. Brian Smith. |
▪ II. hey
obs. form of eye, hay, he pron., heo pron., hi pron., hie, high.