זייער

• (YIVO, Northern Yiddish) IPA^(key): /ˈzɛɪ̯ər/
• (Southern Yiddish) IPA^(key): /ˈzaɪ̯ər/

From Middle High German sēr, from Old High German sēr (“sored, injured”), from Proto-West Germanic *sair.

זייער • (zeyer)

1. very

In Standard Yiddish, זייער (zeyer) goes before the indefinite article but after the definite article.

• דער זייער גרויסער מאַן

  der zeyer groyser man

  the very big man

• זייער אַ גרויסער מאַן

  zeyer a groyser man

  a very big man

Derived from זיי (zey, “they”) by analogy with אונדזער (undzer, “our”) and אײַער (ayer, “your”), perhaps also with earlier genitive forms in -er. Displaced in the plural sense איר (ir, now only “her”), from Middle High German ir (“her, their”).

זייער • (zeyer)

1. their (third person plural possessive pronoun, all genders)