Where does “yee” come from?
yee (Middle English) comes from Middle English ye, from Old English ġē, from Proto-Germanic jahw, from Proto-Germanic -hw, from Proto-Germanic -hwe, from Proto-Indo-European -kʷe — and; Forms distributives from interrogatives.
yee (Middle English): Alternative form of ye
Ancestry of “yee”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | ye | Second-person plural pronoun: ye, you;... |
| 2 | Old English | ġē | ye |
| 3 | Proto-Germanic | jahw | and, also |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | -hw | and; Forms distributives from interrogatives |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | -hwe | — |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -kʷe | and; Forms distributives from interrogatives |