pronoun , determiner
■ pronoun
/ jiː; NAmE ; weak form ji/ ( old use or dialect ) a word meaning 'you', used when talking to more than one person :
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
■ determiner
/jiː/ a word meaning 'the', used in the names of pubs, shops, etc. to make them seem old :
Ye Olde Starre Inn
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WORD ORIGIN
pronoun Old English gē , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch gij and German ihr .
determiner graphic variant; in late Middle English þ (see thorn sense 3) came to be written identically with y, so that the could be written ye . This spelling (usually y e ) was kept as a convenient abbreviation in handwriting down to the 19th cent., and in printers' types during the 15th and 16th cents., but it was never pronounced as “ye”.