different between clayen vs clayey

English

Etymology

From Middle English cleyen, equivalent to clay +? -en.

Adjective

clayen (not comparable)

1. Of clay; made of clay.
   • 1870, Richard Grant White, Words and Their Uses, Past and Present: A Study of the English Language, page 261

     It is difficult to see why silveren should have been dropped, and brazen and golden retained. Better return to stonen and clayen and yarnen, than lose golden and its fellows.

   • 2016, Alice Morse Earle, Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth, Krill Press via PublishDrive (?ISBN)

     Encircling in turn the best bearing trees, they drank from “clayen-cups,” and poured part of the contents on the ground under the trees. And while they wassailed the trees they sang:— “Here's to thee, old Apple tree! Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow, And whence thou mayst bear Apples enow! Hats full! caps full, Bushel—Bushel—sacks full, And my pockets full too.”

Translations

Anagrams

• Acelyn

English

Etymology

From Middle English cleyye; equivalent to clay +? -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kle?(j)i/
• Rhymes: -e?i

Adjective

clayey (comparative clayier, superlative clayiest)

1. Resembling or containing clay.
   • 1812, Antonio de Alcedo and George Alexander Thompson (translator), The geographical and historical dictionary of America and the West Indies, vol. 2, page 13, “Demerara” (J. Carpenter):

     The shores of the rivers and creeks are chiefly planted with coffee, to the distance of about 30 miles from the sea : thence 30 miles farther up, the soil becomes clayey and more fit for sugar-canes.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 11

     Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if, darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.

   • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 85:

     Limestone, of course, is calcium carbonate, and thus chemically utterly different in composition from the clayey rocks below and the hard, pebbly ones above.

Synonyms

• clayish
• argillaceous

Anagrams

• Cayley