aby
Translingual
English
Etymology
From Middle English abyen, abien, abiggen, from Old English ābyċġan (“to buy; pay for; buy off; requite; recompense; redeem; perform; execute”), from Proto-Germanic *uzbugjaną, equivalent to a- + buy. Cognate with Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌱𐌿𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (usbugjan).[1] Not related to abide.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /əˈbaɪ/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -aɪ
Verb
aby (simple past and past participle abought, no other forms attested in Modern English)
- (transitive)
- (archaic) To pay the penalty for (something); to atone for, to make amends. [from 12th c.]
- Synonym: make up
- 1607 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], The Knight of the Burning Pestle, London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Walter Burre, […], published 1613, →OCLC, Act III, signature G, recto:
- Foole-hardy Knight, full soone thou shalt aby / This fond reproach, thy body will I hang, [Hee takes down / his pole.] / And loe vpon that string thy teeth shall hang: Prepare thy selfe, for dead soone shalt thou bee
- (archaic, figuratively) To pay (something) as a penalty, to atone for; to suffer (something). [from 12th c.]
- Synonym: sustain
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 38, page 455:
- Who dyes the vtmoſt dolor doth abye, / But who that liues, is lefte to waile his loſſe: / So life is loſſe, and death felicity.
- 1870, William Morris, “February: Bellerophon in Lycia”, in The Earthly Paradise: A Poem, part IV, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, page 339:
- We doubt thee not; / Thy tale seems true, nor dost thou glorify / Thyself herein—certes thou wouldst abye / A heavy fate if thou shouldst lie herein— […]
- (obsolete except Scotland) To endure or tolerate (something); to experience. [from 16th c.][2]
- Synonyms: brook, go on, hold on, put up with; see also Thesaurus:persist, Thesaurus:tolerate
- 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Wood by Silvermills”, in Catriona, London, Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 131:
- The muckle black deil was father to the Frasers, a'body kens that; and as for the Gregara, I never could abye the reek of them since I could stotter on two feet.
- (obsolete) To pay for (something); to buy. [12th–16th c.]
- Synonyms: procure, purchase; see also Thesaurus:buy
- (archaic) To pay the penalty for (something); to atone for, to make amends. [from 12th c.]
- (intransitive, obsolete)
- To pay the penalty; to atone. [12th–16th c.]
- Synonyms: expiate, propitiate
- To endure; to remain. [14th–16th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 3, pages 494–495:
- So long as breath, and hable puiſſaunce / Did natiue corage vnto him ſupply, / His pace he freſhly forward did aduaunce, / And carried her beyond all ieopardy, / But nought that wanteth reſt, can long aby.
- To pay the penalty; to atone. [12th–16th c.]
Usage notes
The verb is almost always encountered with a modal verb, as in shall aby, could aby, etc. The gerund abuying of the alternative spelling abuy is found in one text; see that entry.
References
- Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “aby”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 11.
- “aby, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
Czech
Etymology
Inherited from Old Czech aby, from Proto-Slavic *aby. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + by.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈabɪ]
Lower Sorbian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈabɨ/
Further reading
- Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928) “aby”, in Słownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague: ОРЯС РАН, ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, 2008
- Starosta, Manfred (1999) “aby”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
Old Czech
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *aby. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + by.
Conjunction
aby
Inflection
singular | dual | plural | |
---|---|---|---|
1st person | abych | abychově (-va) | abychom (-me/-my) |
2nd person | aby | abysta (-šta) | abyste (-šte) |
3rd person | aby | aby, abysta (-šta) | aby, abychu |
Descendants
- Czech: aby
References
- Jan Gebauer (1903–1916) “aby”, in Slovník staročeský (in Czech), Prague: Česká grafická společnost "unie", Česká akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění
Old Polish
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *aby. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + by. First attested in the 15th century.
Conjunction
aby
- to, in order to, so that (connects sentences either to express the goal of a speaker, when the speaker wishes to communicate a command or wish) [+past tense = to do what]
- even though, although
- if
References
- B. Sieradzka-Baziur, editor (2011–2015), “aby”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN
Polish
Etymology
Inherited from Old Polish aby. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + by.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈa.bɨ/
- (Middle Polish) IPA(key): /ˈa.bɨ/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -abɨ
- Syllabification: a‧by
Conjunction
aby
- to, in order to, so that (connects sentences either to express the goal of a speaker, when the speaker wishes to communicate a command or wish) [+past tense = to do what]
- to (used to connect a sequence of actions) [+infinitive = to do what]
- so long as (used to express a wish for anything) [+past tense = to do what]
- Zrób to byle jak, aby szybciej ― Do it any which way, as long as it's faster.
- just to, for the sake of
- Czytał aby czytał ― He read just to read
Declension
Particle
aby
- (colloquial) expresses the speaker's certainty of their statement; happen to, isn't?
- Near-synonyms: czasami, czasem, przypadkiem
- Aby tam będzie? ― Do you really think he'll be there?
Trivia
According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), aby is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 110 times in scientific texts, 81 times in news, 113 times in essays, 89 times in fiction, and 37 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 430 times, making it the 108th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[1]
Further reading
- aby in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
- aby in Polish dictionaries at PWN
- Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “aby”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
- “ABY”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 07.05.2008
- Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “aby”, in Słownik języka polskiego, volume 1, page 3
- Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “aby”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
- J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1900), “aby”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 1, Warsaw, page 4
Scots
Silesian
Etymology
Inherited from Old Polish aby. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + by.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈabɨ/
- Rhymes: -abɨ
- Syllabification: a‧by