dye English · revision 39434

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=inherited|attested=Old English|origins=gem-pro *daugō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /daɪ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The noun is [[inh|enm|dehe]] (earlier [[m|enm|deyg]]), [[inh|ang|dēag|t=colour, hue]] (also [[m|ang|dēah]]),^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(AHD 2024) and the verb [[m|enm|deien]], [[m|ang|dēagian|t=to dye]], formed from that noun.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 2026) They go back to [[gem-pro|*daugō]],^(Etymonline)^(OED 2026) which Barnhart and Etymonline connect with [[m|ang|dēagol|t=secret, hidden; dark]], [[osx|dōgol|t=secret]] and [[goh|tougal|t=dark, hidden]];^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) Barnhart and Klein also compare [[lv|dūkans|t=dark-coloured]] and set up a root [[ine-pro|*dʰewk-|t=colour, dark]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Klein 1966) Hoad and Weekley call it of unknown origin,^(Hoad 1986)^(Weekley 1921) and Ayto finds the link with ''dēagol'' hard to square with the meaning.^(Ayto 2005)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Colour or hue, and a substance used for colouring: both senses of the noun are in Old English glosses.^(OED 2026) The verb, to tinge with a colour, is also Old English.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The OED and Hoad record the noun hardly at all after Middle English, until it was formed anew from the verb in the late 16th century;^(OED 2026)^(Hoad 1986)^(SOED 2002) Barnhart, using the Middle English Dictionary, finds both the noun and the verb in the 15th century, so the word may have been in continuous use.^(Barnhart 1988) Ayto suggests the original meaning was simply "colour", and that artificial colouring is a secondary development.^(Ayto 2005) The figurative ''of the deepest'' (or ''blackest'') ''dye'', of the worst kind, appears in 1600,^(OED 2026) and to ''dye in the wool'' or ''in grain'', to colour the raw material so that the colour lasts, already in Chaucer.^(OED 2026) The spelling ''dye'' became fixed only in the 19th century: Johnson spelled both this word and ''[[die]]'' as ''die'', while Addison spelled both ''dye''.^(Ayto 2005)^(OED 2026)^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1000 – Old English ''dēag'', ''dēagian'', in Ælfric's works.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1260 – ''deyer'', implying the verb.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1280 – ''deyg'', the noun in Middle English.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1386 – to fix a colour in cloth, and ''to dye in grain'', in Chaucer.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1600 – ''of the deepest dye'', figuratively.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1755 – Johnson spells the word ''die''.^(Johnson 1755)^(OED 2026)

+ * 1835 – the colour as a property of the cloth.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A natural or [[synthetic]] substance used to colour cloth, hair, food and other materials.^(AHD 2024)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A colour or shade produced by dyeing.^(AHD 2024)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To colour something, especially by soaking it in a solution of colouring matter.^(AHD 2024)^(Collins 2023)

+ # To take on colour when dyed.^(AHD 2024)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[dyer]]

+ * [[dyeable]]

+ * [[dyeline]]

+ * [[dyestuff]]

+ * [[dyewood]]

+ * [[tie-dye]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[die]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The idiom ''dyed-in-the-wool'' means thoroughly committed to a belief that will not change, after yarn dyed raw, which keeps its colour better.^(COED 2004)^(OED 2026) In Northumberland ''dye-sand'' was an ochre-coloured sand used for scouring floors, and in Shropshire ''dye-earth'' a pale clay.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}