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yes - 4 dictionary results
yes
[yes] 
,adverb, noun, plural yes⋅es, verb, yessed, yes⋅sing, interjection –adverb
| 1. | (used to express affirmation or assent or to mark the addition of something emphasizing and amplifying a previous statement): Do you want that? Yes, I do. |
| 2. | (used to express an emphatic contradiction of a previously negative statement or command): Don't do that! Oh, yes I will! |
| 3. | (used, usually interrogatively, to express hesitation, uncertainty, curiosity, etc.): “Yes?” he said as he opened the door. That was a marvelous show! Yes? |
| 4. | (used to express polite or minimal interest or attention.) |
–noun
| 5. | an affirmative reply. |
–verb (used with object)
| 6. | to give an affirmative reply to; give assent or approval to. |
–interjection
| 7. | (used as a strong expression of joy, pleasure, or approval.) |
Origin:
bef. 900; ME yes, yis, OE gēse (adv. and n.), prob. equiv. to gēa yea + sī be it (pres. subj. sing. of bēon to be)
bef. 900; ME yes, yis, OE gēse (adv. and n.), prob. equiv. to gēa yea + sī be it (pres. subj. sing. of bēon to be)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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|
Link To yes
| yes (yěs) adv. It is so; as you say or ask. Used to express affirmation, agreement, positive confirmation, or consent. n. pl. yes·es
To give an affirmative reply to. interj. Used to express great satisfaction, approval, or happiness. [Middle English, from Old English gēse, so be it! : probably gēa, so; see i- in Indo-European roots + sīe, may it be so; see es- in Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Yes
Yes\, adv. [OE. yis, [yogh]is, [yogh]es, [yogh]ise, AS. gese, gise; probably fr. ge['a] yea + sw[=a] so. [root]188. See Yea, and So.] Ay; yea; -- a word which expresses affirmation or consent; -- opposed to no. Note: Yes is used, like yea, to enforce, by repetition or addition, something which precedes; as, you have done all this -- yes, you have done more. "Yes, you despise the man books confined." --Pope. Note: "The fine distinction between `yea' and `yes,' `nay' and `no,' that once existed in English, has quite disappeared. `Yea' and `nay' in Wyclif's time, and a good deal later, were the answers to questions framed in the affirmative. `Will he come?' To this it would have been replied, `Yea' or `Nay', as the case might be. But, `Will he not come?' To this the answer would have been `Yes' or `No.' Sir Thomas More finds fault with Tyndale, that in his translation of the Bible he had not observed this distinction, which was evidently therefore going out even then, that is, in the reign of Henry VIII.; and shortly after it was quite forgotten." --Trench.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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