different between sister vs hey

English

Etymology

From Middle English sister, suster, from Old English swustor, sweoster, sweostor (“sister, nun”); from Proto-Germanic *swest?r (“sister”), from Proto-Indo-European *swés?r (“sister”).

Cognate with Scots sister, syster (“sister”), West Frisian sus, suster (“sister”), Dutch zuster (“sister”), German Schwester (“sister”), Norwegian Bokmål søster (“sister”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish syster (“sister”), Icelandic systir (“sister”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (swistar, “sister”), Latin soror (“sister”), Russian ??????? (sestrá, “sister”), Lithuanian sesuo (“sister”), Albanian vajzë (“girl, maiden”), Sanskrit ????? (svás?, “sister”), Persian ?????? (xâhar, “sister”).

In standard English, the form with i is due to contamination with Old Norse systir (“sister”).

The plural sistren is from Middle English sistren, a variant plural of sister, suster (“sister”); compare brethren.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?s.t?/
• (General American) enPR: s?s't?r, IPA^(key): /?s?s.t?/
• Rhymes: -?st?(r)
• Hyphenation: sis?ter

Noun

sister (plural sisters or (archaic in most senses) sistren)

1. A daughter of the same parents as another person; a female sibling.

   Synonym: (slang) sis

   Antonym: brother

   Hypernym: sibling

2. A female member of a religious order; especially one devoted to more active service; (informal) a nun.

   Synonyms: nun, sistren

   Coordinate terms: brother, friar, frater

3. Any butterfly in the genus Adelpha, so named for the resemblance of the dark-colored wings to the black habit traditionally worn by nuns.
4. (Britain) A senior or supervisory nurse, often in a hospital.

   Synonym: charge nurse

5. Any woman or girl with whom a bond is felt through common membership of a race, profession, religion or organization, such as feminism.
6. (slang, sometimes capitalized) A black woman.
   • 2009, Rajen Persaud, Why Black Men Love White Women, Simon and Schuster (?ISBN), page 171:

     The short “naps” of the average Sister do not sway in the wind as that of a blonde.

7. (informal) A form of address to a woman.

   Synonyms: darling, dear, love, (US) lady, miss, (northern UK) pet

8. A woman, in certain labour or socialist circles; also as a form of address.
9. (attributively) An entity that has a special or affectionate, non-hierarchical relationship with another.

   Synonyms: affiliate, affiliated

10. (computing theory) A node in a data structure that shares its parent with another node.
11. (usually attributively) Something in the same class.

Usage notes

• In Roman Catholicism, a distinction is often drawn (especially by members of female religious orders) between nuns and sisters, the former being cloistered and devoted primarily to prayer, the latter being more active, doing work such as operating hospitals, caring for the poor, or teaching.
• The plural sistren is no longer commonly used for biological sisters in contemporary English (although it was in the past) but may be found in some religious, feminist, or poetic usage.

Derived terms

Related terms

• sororal
• sistren

Coordinate terms

• brother
• brethren

Descendants

• ? Gulf Arabic: ???????? (sist?r, “female nurse”)
• ? Japanese: ???? (shisut?)
• ? Korean: ??? (siseuteo)

Translations

Verb

sister (third-person singular simple present sisters, present participle sistering, simple past and past participle sistered)

1. (transitive, construction) To strengthen (a supporting beam) by fastening a second beam alongside it.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To be sister to; to resemble closely.
   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act V, Scene 1

     Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her needle composes

     Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,

     That even her art sisters the natural roses;

     Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry

Translations

Further reading

• Sister (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• sister in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Istres, Reists, reists, resist, resits, restis, risest

Middle English

Noun

sister

1. Alternative form of suster

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English sister, syster, forms of suster influenced by Old Norse systir, from Old English sweostor, swustor, sweoster, from Proto-Germanic *swest?r, from Proto-Indo-European *swés?r.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?s?st?r]

Noun

sister (plural sisteris)

1. sister

Derived terms

• guid-sister

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: h?, IPA^(key): /he?/
• Homophone: hay
• Rhymes: -e?

Etymology 1

From Middle English hey, hei, also without h- in ey, from Old English *h?, ?a (interjection), attested as first element in h?l?, ?al? (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”). Cognate with Dutch hé, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Old Norse, Icelandic and Norwegian hei (“hey”), Romanian hei, Russian ?? (ej, “hey”); see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ??? (he:), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Mandarin ? (?i), and various sound-alikes as Ancient Greek ??? (eîa) and Latin eia, eho, Sanskrit ?? (he). See also hello.

Alternative forms

• hay
• heigh

Interjection

hey

1. An exclamation to get attention.

2. A protest or reprimand.

3. An expression of surprise.

4. An informal greeting, similar to hi.

5. A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion.

6. A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in song lyrics.

Synonyms

• (exclamation to get attention): oi, yo; see also Thesaurus:hey
• (expression of surprise): blimey, gee whiz, yowzah; see also Thesaurus:wow
• (for repetition or explanation): eh, huh
• (informal greeting): hi, howdy, wotcher; see also Thesaurus:hello

Related terms

Translations

See also

• huh
• hay is for horses
• hey on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From French haie (“hedge”), with reference to the weaving patterns used in hedgelaying.

Noun

hey (plural heys)

1. (country dancing) A choreographic figure in which three or more dancers weave between one another, passing by left and right shoulder alternately.

Translations

Etymology 3

See he.

Noun

hey (plural heys)

1. Alternative spelling of he (Hebrew letter)

Anagrams

• Yeh, hye, yeh

Faroese

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

Interjection

hey

1. hi, hey, hello

   Synonyms: halló, góðan morgun, góðan dag, gott kvøld

   Antonyms: farvæl, vit síggjast

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hei?/
• Rhymes: -ei?

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hey, from Proto-Germanic *hawj?.

Noun

hey n (genitive singular heys, nominative plural hey)

1. (usually uncountable) hay

Declension

Etymology 2

Interjection

hey

1. hey

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English h??, h?e?, from Proto-West Germanic *hawi, from Proto-Germanic *hawj? (“hay”).

Noun

hey (uncountable)

1. hay

Alternative forms

• hey?, heygh, hay, ay, heyn, hayn, hei, hei?, heigh, hai, hain

Descendants

• English: hay
• Scots: hey
• Yola: hye, hey

References

• “hei, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Old English *h?, ?a. See English hey for more.

Interjection

hey

1. hey

Alternative forms

• hay, ay, he, heh, heigh

Descendants

• English: hey
• Scots: hey

References

• “hei, interj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

Noun

hey

1. Alternative form of heye (“hedge”)

Etymology 4

Noun

hey (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of hye (“haste”)

Etymology 5

Pronoun

hey

1. Alternative form of he (“he”)

Etymology 6

Pronoun

hey

1. Alternative form of he (“they”)

Etymology 7

Verb

hey (third-person singular simple present heyeth, present participle heyynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle heyed)

1. Alternative form of heien (“to lift up”)

Etymology 8

Pronoun

hey (comparative heyer, superlative heyest)

1. Alternative form of heigh (“high”)

Portuguese

Verb

hey

1. Obsolete spelling of hei

Somali

Verb

hey

1. possess

Spanish

Alternative forms

• ey

Etymology

Borrowed from English hey.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ei/, [?ei?]

• (Imitating English) IPA^(key): /?xei/, [?xei?]

Interjection

¡hey!

1. hey!

   Synonyms: eh, oye

Related terms

• ah
• oh
• hala

Yola

Noun

hey

1. Alternative form of hye