I. (|)yē, -_yi, in a few phases in which it is preserved _ē or i pronoun
Etymology: Middle English ye, yhe, from Old English gē (suppletive 2d person nominative plural of thū, thu thou) — more at you , thou
: you I 1a — used from the earliest times to the late 13th century only as a plural pronoun of the second person in the nominative case including direct address and still surviving archaically and in many dialects in this use alongside of other more recently originated uses
that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven — Mt 5:45 (Authorized Version)
waft, ye winds, His story — Reginald Heber
avast, ye rogues — Frank Yerby
— sometimes used without archaic or dialectal flavor in mock invocations
ye gods and little fishes
— used from the late 13th century also as a singular pronoun of the second person in the nominative case including direct address, at first only as the appropriate form of address to a person of high social status or to a person not well known to the speaker but later without this limitation except in a few English dialects, and still surviving archaically and in many dialects in this use
My Lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too hot — Shakespeare
sweet mother, do ye love the child — Alfred Tennyson
d' ye stand there, knave, and see your master robbed — Charles Reade
— used from the late 14th century also as a singular or plural pronoun of the second person in contexts where the objective case form of an inflected pronoun is the one to be expected and still surviving archaically and in many dialects in this use
vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye — Shakespeare
I come, …, strange news to tell ye — John Dryden
— compare thee I, thou I
II. _yē, yi, or like the I definite article
Etymology: alteration of Old English þ ē the; from the fact that in some medieval manuscripts the runic letter þ ( th ) became indistinguishable from the Roman letter y and as the runic letter grew obsolete printers often used the y to replace it
archaic : the — often used in business names to suggest an earlier time
Ye Olde Gifte Shoppe