ahoy
Sign in to saveAhoy () () is a signal word used to call to a ship or boat. It is derived from the Middle English cry, ''. The word fell out of use at one time, but was revived when sailing became a popular sport. 'Ahoy' can also be used as a greeting, a warning, or a farewell.
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Encyclopedic overview
34 sectionsContents
- Early forms and development
- "a, hoy, hoay"
- ahiu, â hui
- Distribution and use
- General information
- English
- First examples
- Consolidation
- The variant "ohoy"
- German, diffusion
- Research
- Early evidence in translation
- Early evidence in German source texts
- The use of ''ahoi'' in German
- Maritime context
- Watersport
- Carnival
- Military
- Candy
- Cattle drive
- Dutch
- Theories of origin
- Sources
- Ahoy in Rotterdam
- Scandinavian languages
- Forms
- Early evidence
- Finnish and Estonian
- Czech and Slovak
- Theories of origin
- nazdar, ahoj, ''čau''
- Usage in youth culture
- Teasing usage in Theresienstadt
- References
Ahoy () () is a signal word used to call to a ship or boat. It is derived from the Middle English cry, ''. The word fell out of use at one time, but was revived when sailing became a popular sport. 'Ahoy' can also be used as a greeting, a warning, or a farewell.
One or another variation on the word is found in several languages. In Czech and Slovak, ahoj is a common, colloquial greeting, while 'hoi' in Modern Dutch and Swiss German, ‘oi’ in Brazilian Portuguese and Italian, and 'Ohøj' in Danish are informal greetings equivalent to the English 'hi' or 'hey'.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “ahoy” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.