whey

• whig (dialectal)
• whay (obsolete)

• enPR: hwā, wā, IPA^(key): /hweɪ/, /weɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: way, weigh, wey (wine–whine merger)

From Middle English whey, wheye, whei, from Old English hwǣġ, hwæiġ, hwæġ, hweġ (“whey”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwaij (“whey”) (compare Saterland Frisian Waai, Woaie, West Frisian waai, Dutch wei, Low German Wei, German Low German Wei), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *kʷey- (“to pile up, build”) (compare Old Church Slavonic чинъ (činŭ, “order”), Ancient Greek ποιέω (poiéō, “to pile up, make”), Sanskrit कय (káya, “every one”)).

whey (usually uncountable, plural wheys)

2. The liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained in the process of making cheese.
   • 1805, Songs for the Nursery, page 23:

     Little Miss Muffet, She sat on a tuffet, Eating of curds and whey; There came a little spider, Who sat down beside her, And frighted Miss Muffet away.

   • 1847, Emily Brontë, chapter XX, in Wuthering Heights‎^[1]:

     {...} if I wished any blessing in the world, it was to find him a worthy object of pride; and I’m bitterly disappointed with the whey-faced, whining wretch!

• curds

Onomatopoeic, variation on wahey.

whey

1. (UK, dated) A shout for attention
   • 1928, Ruth Manning-Sanders, Waste Corner:

     He swayed over to the door, peered out, shouted "whey!" and came back, looking severe.

   • 1982, Frank Entwisle, Abroad in England:

     somebody who was more or less to their senses, shouted... ' Whey! ... Had on lads!' and everybody was trying to get wocken up and sorted out.

2. (UK) A shout of enthusiasm or delight
   • 2011 September 1, Case File 12: The Case of the Messy Mucked Up Masterpiece, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     ... apart from Max, who rode his pallet like a surfboard with a huge grin plastered across his face. “Wheyyyyyyy!” Max yelled with delight.

   • 2016 December 30, Hahn Moo-Sook, The House of Pomegranate Trees, Literature Translation Institute of Korea, →ISBN:

     Several drunken men shouted from the corner. “Wheyyyy, showtime! Go on, go on!”

3. (UK) Shouted when someone drops a glass or other crockery, especially in a pub.
   • 2014 February 18, Catriona Harvey-Jenner, “25 things only bar staff will understand”, in Cosmopolitan UK‎^[2]:

     12. Smashing a glass and the whole bar choruses "WHEYYYY".

   • 2020 February 10, Claire Galloway, “15 things only people who have worked in an Edinburgh pub will understand”, in Edinburgh Live‎^[3]:

     If they don't shout "wheyyy" when you smash a glass, did it even smash?

   • 2024 May 9, Oisín McKenna, Evenings and Weekends, HarperCollins UK, →ISBN:

     the sloshed post-work boozers all shout "Wheyyyyyyy!' at a glass that's smashed on the floor

• wheyy, whei, wheye, wheyȝe, wey, whay, qwhey, weyȝe, whaye, wege

From Old English hwǣġ, hwæiġ, hwæġ, hweġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hwaij (“whey”).

• IPA^(key): /hwæi̯/
• (dialectal) IPA^(key): /wæi̯/, /xwæi̯/

whey (uncountable)

1. The leftovers from milk curdled during cheesemaking; whey.
2. (rare) The result of strained almond milk.

• English: whey (whig)
• Scots: quhaye, quhay, quhey, whey, fey

• “whei, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 1 September 2018.