different between ashen vs ashy

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?.?n/
• Rhymes: -æ??n

Etymology 1

From Middle English asshen, aisshen, esscen, from Old English es?en (“made of ashwood”), equivalent to ash +? -en (“made or consisting of”). Cognate with Scots aschin, eschin (“ashen”).

Adjective

ashen (comparative more ashen, superlative most ashen)

1. Made from the wood of the ash-tree.

Translations

Etymology 2

From ash +? -en (“made or consisting of”).

Adjective

ashen (comparative more ashen, superlative most ashen)

1. Of or resembling ashes.

   A fine, ashen dust hung in the air.

2. Ash-colored; pale; anemic, anaemic.

   His ashen face belied his claims of good health.

Synonyms

• (sickly pale): See also Thesaurus:pallid

Translations

Etymology 3

From ash +? -en (verbal suffix).

Verb

ashen (third-person singular simple present ashens, present participle ashening, simple past and past participle ashened)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To turn into ash; make or become ashy
2. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become pale

Anagrams

• Ehsan, Haens, Hanes, Hanse, Sanhe, Shane, Shean, hanse, heans

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English asshe, from Old English æs?e, from Proto-West Germanic *ask?, from Proto-Germanic *ask?.

Noun

ashen

1. ashes

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN

English

Etymology

From Middle English asshy, asky, equivalent to ash +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?i/
• Rhymes: -æ?i

Adjective

ashy (comparative ashier, superlative ashiest)

1. Resembling ashes (especially in colour); (of a person’s complexion) unusually pale as a result of strong emotion, illness, etc.

   Synonyms: ashen, cineraceous, cinereous

   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, London: Richard Field^[1]

     Still is he sullein, still he lowres and frets,

     Twixt crimson shame, and anger ashie pale,

   • 1636, Thomas Heywood, Loves Maistresse: or, The Queens Masque, London: John Crowch, Act IV, Scene 1,^[2]

     Tell her that sicknesse, with her ashie hand,

     Hath swept away the beauty from my cheekes,

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 11, p. 126,^[3]

     Again the operation; again the narcotic; again some return of colour to the ashy cheeks, and the regular breathing of healthy sleep.

   • 1968, Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea, Chapter 7, p. 123,^[4]

     Beyond that black clot the sea lay, pale with last ashy gleam of day.

2. Comprising, containing, or covered with ash.

   Synonym: cinereous

   • 1591, Edmund Spenser, “Ruines of Rome” in Complaints, London: William Ponsonby,^[5]

     Ye heauenly spirites, whose ashie cinders lie

     Vnder deep ruines, with huge walls opprest,

   • 1720, Alexander Pope (translator), The Iliad: of Homer, London: Bernard Lintott, Volume 6, Book 23, p. 75,^[6]

     […] where yet the Embers glow,

     Wide o’er the Pyle the sable Wine they throw,

     And deep subsides the ashy Heap below.

   • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, London: Chapman and Hall, Volume 3, Chapter 10, p. 151,^[7]

     […] I saw her sitting on the hearth in a ragged chair, close before, and lost in the contemplation of, the ashy fire.

   • 1991, Edwidge Danticat, “A Wall of Fire Rising” in Krik? Krak! New York: Soho Press, 1995,^[8]

     He lit the paper until it burned to an ashy film.

3. (African-American Vernacular) Having dry or dead skin (therefore discolored).
   • 1969, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Random House, 2002, Chapter 4, p. 22,^[9]

     It was summer and his pants were short, so the pickle juice made clean streams down his ashy legs […]

   • 2015, Paul Beatty, The Sellout, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Chapter 11, p. 159,^[10]

     […] a skinny chalk-colored girl raised a hand so disgustingly ashy, so white and dry-skinned, that it could only be black.

Derived terms

• ashily
• ashiness

Translations

Anagrams

• Hays, SYHA, Shay, hays, shay, yahs