eyen

English

Alternative forms

• eyn, eyne

Etymology

From Middle English eyen, iȝen (plural of eie, besides rarer eyes), from Old English ēagan (nominative plural of ēage), from Proto-West Germanic *augōn (nominative plural of *augā), from Proto-Germanic *augōnō (nominative plural of *augô); equivalent to eye +‎ -en (plural ending)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aɪn/
• Rhymes: -aɪn
• Homophone: Ayn

Noun

eyen

1. (dialectal or archaic) plural of eye
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     While flashing beams do daze his feeble eyen.

   • 1897, William Morris, “Chapter VII. Birdalone Hath an Adventure in the Wood”, in The Water of the Wondrous Isles (Fantasy), Project Gutenberg, published 2005:

     But well are thine eyen set in thy head, wide apart, well opened, […]

   • 1903, Florence Converse, Long Will: A Romance, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, page 138:

     Yea, ’t is true; I ’d know thee by thine eyen, that are gray, and thoughtful, and dark with a something that lies behind the colour of them,—and shining by the light of a lamp lit somewhere within.

   • 2001, James Ryman, “‘Meekly We Sing and Say to Thee’”, in Douglas Brooks-Davies, editor, Talking of Mothers: Poems for Every Mother (Everyman’s Poetry), London: Everyman Paperbacks, J.M. Dent, Orion Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 5:

     Sweet and benign mediatrix, / Thine eyen of grace on us thou cast, / Since thou art queen of paradise, / And let not our hope be in waste, / But show us thy Son at the last, / Since we do sing and say to thee, ‘Maria, spes nostra, salue.’

Anagrams

• eeny, eyne, yeen

Middle English

Alternative forms

• eien, eyne, iȝen
• eȝhne (Ormulum)

Etymology

Inherited from Old English ēagan (nominative plural of ēage "eye"). Reinforced by rare Old English oblique forms of ēage with case endings pleonastically added to oblique ēagan like ēagenes (genitive singular) or ēagenum (dative plural), hence the frequent unexpected final -e even in texts where it reliably indicates (etymological) /ə/.

Noun

eyen

1. plural of eye (“eye”)

   Synonyms: (Norfolk, West Midlands) eynen, (late, uncommon) eyes

Descendants

• English: eyen, eyn, eyne (archaic or dialectal)
• Middle Scots: ene, eyne
  • Scots: een
• Yola: ieen, eeen, een, eyen, ein, eein (plural)