Etymograph

English

ye

Ye comes from Proto-West Germanic *jiʀ ‘you (all)’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *yúHs.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*yúHs1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*jūz1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*jīz1reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*jiʀ1‘you (all)’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150ġē1
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ye1
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1596ye1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English ye
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book VI, Canto XII: “My liefe (ſayd ſhe) ye know, that long ygo,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*yúHsWiktionary, English yereconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*jūzWiktionary, English yereconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*jīzWiktionary, English yereconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*jiʀWiktionary, English ye‘you (all)’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150ġēWiktionary, English ye
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500yeWiktionary, English ye
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1596yeWiktionary, English ye. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book VI, Canto XII: “My liefe (ſayd ſhe) ye know, that long ygo,…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *yúHs

you

through Old English ġē

gee

through Middle English ye

yo, yea, yeet

Another origin of ye

  1. Russianmodernеje‘the name of the Cyrillic script letter Е’
  2. Englishtodayye

Today it means

pron You (the people being addressed).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “ye”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *yúHs / ye

Shirt and support for this word