different between witness vs eye

English

Alternative forms

• (archaic) witnesse

Etymology

From Middle English witnesse, from Old English ?ewitnes, equivalent to wit +? -ness. Cognate with Middle Dutch wetenisse (“witness, testimony”), Old High German gewiznessi (“testimony”), Icelandic vitni (“witness”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w?tn?s/, /?w?tn?s/
• Rhymes: -?tn?s, -?tn?s
• Hyphenation: wit?ness

Noun

witness (countable and uncountable, plural witnesses)

1. (uncountable) Attestation of a fact or event; testimony.

   She can bear witness, since she was there at the time.

   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV, Scene ii^[1]:

     May we, with the warrant of womanhood and the witness of a good conscience, pursue him with any further revenge?
2. (countable) One who sees or has personal knowledge of something.

   As a witness to the event, I can confirm that he really said that.

   • c. 1589-93, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act IV, Scene ii^[7]:

     […] thyself art witness— I am betrothed.

   • c. 1786, Robert Hall, A Reverie

     Upon my looking round, I was a witness to appearances which filled me with melancholy and regret.

3. (countable, law) Someone called to give evidence in a court.
4. (countable) One who is called upon to witness an event or action, such as a wedding or the signing of a document.

5. (countable) Something that serves as evidence; a sign or token.

   • Laban said to Jacob, […] This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

witness (third-person singular simple present witnesses, present participle witnessing, simple past and past participle witnessed)

1. (transitive) To furnish proof of, to show.

   This certificate witnesses his presence on that day.

   • 1667: round he throws his baleful eyes / That witness'd huge affliction and dismay — John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1 ll. 56-7
2. (transitive) To take as evidence.
3. (transitive) To see or gain knowledge of through experience.

   He witnessed the accident.

   • 1801, Robert Hall, On Modern Infidelity

     This is but a faint sketch of the incalculable calamities and horrors we must expect, should we be so unfortunate as ever to witness the triumph of modern infidelity

   • 1803 (first published), John Marshall, The Life of George Washington

     General Washington did not live to witness the restoration of peace.

4. (intransitive, construed with to or for) To present personal religious testimony; to preach at (someone) or on behalf of.
   • 1998, "Niebuhr, Reinhold", Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, volume 6, page 842

     Instead, Niebuhr's God was the God witnessed to in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, the Bible of the Christian world.

5. To see the execution of (a legal instrument), and subscribe it for the purpose of establishing its authenticity.

   to witness a bond or a deed

Synonyms

• certify

Translations

Anagrams

• wisents

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?, IPA^(key): /a?/
• Rhymes: -a?
• Homophones: ay, aye, I

Etymology 1

From Middle English eye, eie, yë, eighe, eyghe, y?e, ey?e, from Old English ?age (“eye”), from Proto-West Germanic *aug?, from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”) (compare Scots ee, West Frisian each, Dutch oog, German Auge, Norwegian Bokmål øye, Norwegian Nynorsk auga, Swedish öga), from Proto-Indo-European *h?ok?-, *h?ek?- (“eye; to see”).

See also Latin oculus (whence English oculus), Lithuanian akìs, Old Church Slavonic ??? (oko), Albanian sy, Ancient Greek ???????? (ophthalmós, “eye”), Armenian ??? (akn), Avestan ????????????? (aši, “eyes”), Sanskrit ????? (ák?i). Related to ogle.

The uncommon plural form eyen is from Middle English eyen, from Old English ?agan, nominative and accusative plural of Old English ?age (“eye”).

Noun

eye (plural eyes or (obsolete or dialectal) eyen)

1. An organ through which animals see (perceive surroundings via light).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:eye

   Hyponym: ocellus

2. The visual sense.

3. The iris of the eye, being of a specified colour.

4. Attention, notice.
5. The ability to notice what others might miss.

   Synonym: perceptiveness
6. A meaningful stare or look.

7. A private eye: a privately hired detective or investigator.
8. A hole at the blunt end of a needle through which thread is passed.
9. The oval hole of an axehead through which the axehandle is fitted.
10. A fitting consisting of a loop of metal or other material, suitable for receiving a hook or the passage of a cord or line.

    Synonym: eyelet

11. The relatively clear and calm center of a hurricane or other cyclonic storm.
12. A mark on an animal, such as a peacock or butterfly, resembling a human eye.
13. The dark spot on a black-eyed pea.
14. A reproductive bud in a potato.
15. (informal) The dark brown center of a black-eyed Susan flower.
16. A loop forming part of anything, or a hole through anything, to receive a rope, hook, pin, shaft, etc. — e.g. at the end of a tie bar in a bridge truss; through a crank; at the end of a rope; or through a millstone.
17. That which resembles the eye in relative importance or beauty.
18. Tinge; shade of colour.
    • 1664, Robert Boyle, Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours

      Red with an eye of blue makes a purple.

19. One of the holes in certain kinds of cheese.
20. (architecture) The circle in the centre of a volute.
21. (typography) The enclosed counter (negative space) of the small letter e.
22. (game of Go) An empty point or group of points surrounded by one player's stones.
23. (usually in the plural) View or opinion.

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: ai

Translations

See eye/translations § Noun.

See also

• tapetum lucidum

References

• Eye (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• eye on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

eye (third-person singular simple present eyes, present participle eyeing or eying, simple past and past participle eyed)

1. (transitive) To carefully or appraisingly observe (someone or something).

   After eyeing the document for half an hour, she decided not to sign it.

   They went out and eyed the new car one last time before deciding.

   • 1859, Fraser's Magazine (volume 60, page 671)

     Each downcast monk in silence takes / His place a newmade grave around, / Each one his brother sadly eying.

   Synonym: gaze (poetic)

2. (intransitive, obsolete) To appear; to look.

Derived terms

• eye up
• ineye

Translations

Etymology 2

Probably from rebracketing of a nye as an eye.

Noun

eye (plural eyes)

1. A brood.

   an eye of pheasants

Anagrams

• Yee, yee

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English e?e, from Proto-West Germanic *agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h?ég?os. Doublet of awe.

Alternative forms

• eie, e?e, e??e, ey?e, ei?e

Pronunciation

• (Early ME) IPA^(key): /?ej?/
• IPA^(key): /??i?(?)/
• Rhymes: -?i?(?)

Noun

eye (uncountable)

1. awe, reverence, worshipfulness
2. horror, panic
3. that which creates reverence; the exercise of power
4. that which incites awe
5. that which incites terror

Related terms

• eifulle (rare)
• eiliche (rare)

Descendants

• English: ey (obsolete)

References

• “eie, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-11.

Etymology 2

Noun

eye

1. Alternative form of eie

Tatar

Adverb

eye

1. very, of course, emphatic adverb

Tetelcingo Nahuatl

Interjection

eye

1. hey!

References

• Brewer, Forrest; Brewer, Jean G. (1962) Vocabulario mexicano de Tetelcingo, Morelos: Castellano-mexicano, mexicano-castellano (Serie de vocabularios indígenas Mariano Silva y Aceves; 8)?^[5] (in Spanish), México, D.F.: El Instituto Lingüístico de Verano en coordinación con la Secretaría de Educación Pública a través de la Dirección General de Internados de Enseñanza Primaria y Educación Indígena, published 1971, page 126

Tocharian B

Noun

eye ?

1. sheep

Umbundu

Pronoun

eye

1. (third-person singular pronoun)

See also