quay

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English keie, also kai and cai,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman kaye, also kai and key,^[5][6] and cai (now quai).^[5][4][7] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from 1199, meant a stone landing stage for ships.^[6] The OED takes it as apparently ultimately from Gaulish caio- (“enclosure”), probably at first an enclosing hedge,^[5] and Etymonline and Hoad from Proto-Celtic *kagio-;^[4][7] its Celtic relatives are Welsh cae (“fence, hedge”), Cornish kē (“hedge”), Old Breton cai (“fence”) and Old Irish cae (“enclosed place, house”).^[5][8][7][9] Etymonline and Klein trace it to Proto-Indo-European *kagh- (“to catch, seize; wickerwork, fence”), the root of hedge and haw.^[4][9][5] The OED suggests that the French word first meant the fence-like wooden revetments that held riverbanks and let boats moor, and that some early English examples may instead be from Middle Dutch kaey, which may itself be from French, or from a Celtic language.^[5] The spelling quay copies modern French quai;^{[5][7][10][11]} it is dated to the 17th century by Ayto and Hoad,^[10][7] 1696 by Barnhart,^[3] the 18th century by the Shorter Oxford,^[12] and the mid 16th century by the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A landing place for loading and unloading ships: Barnhart records the Middle English form caye in 1306, and Keye as a surname about 1200;^[3] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300, and to the mid 13th century in place names.^[4] The OED's revised entry (2012) has its first quotation from 1399, in the council register of Aberdeen.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed close to the original man-made landing stage, typically of stone, beside or projecting into the water.^[5][12] The pronunciation is still that of key, the spelling under which the word was long written (key, 1548);^[3][14][13] Barnhart notes that Swift and Tennyson rhymed it with day.^[3] The verb, to provide a place with a quay, is recorded from 1586, and to moor a vessel at a quay from 1798.^[5] The English Dialect Dictionary records local compounds such as the Penzance quay-fair and quay-neb, the jutting point of a quay.^[15] In 18th- and 19th-century criminal slang, quay or quee was a prison.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – Keye, as a surname.^[3]
• 1306 – caye, a wharf.^[3]
• 1399 – a landing stage for loading and unloading ships.^[5]
• 1548 – the spelling key.^[3]
• 1586 – verb, to provide with a quay.^[5]
• 1696 – the spelling quay, in Phillips's dictionary.^[3] Etymonline dates it to the 1690s.^[4]
• 1754 – slang quee, a prison.^[16]
• 1798 – verb, to moor a vessel at a quay.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A landing place built of stone or another solid material along or out into a harbour or river, where ships are loaded and unloaded; a wharf: The ferry tied up at the quay.^[8][11][5]

Verb

1. To provide with a quay.^[11][5][12]
2. (rare) To moor a vessel at a quay.^[5]

Word family

• quaylike
• quayage
• quayside

Related words

• key
• cay
• hedge
• haw

Usage notes

Spenser's quay, to subdue or daunt (1590–1670), is perhaps an alteration of quail and has a separate source.^[5][12] Cay or key, a sandbank or reef, is from Spanish cayo; the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins treats it as the same word as quay, and the OED leaves open whether the Spanish word goes back to the same source.^[13][5][10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com