ahoy
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From "a-hoy", hoy being a Middle English greeting dating back to the fourteenth century.[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
Interjection[edit]
ahoy
- (nautical) Used to hail a ship, a boat or a person, or to attract attention.
- 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle:
- While he was thus occupied, a voice, still more uncouth than the former, bawled aloud, ‘Ho! the house, a-hoy!’
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- I made a speaking trumpet of my hands and commenced to whoop “Ahoy!” and “Hello!” at the top of my lungs. […] The Colonel woke up, and, after asking what in brimstone was the matter, opened his mouth and roared “Hi!” and “Hello!” like the bull of Bashan.
- (humorous) Warning of something approaching or impending.
- 1989, Forbes, volume 143, numbers 5-7, page 74:
- Lawsuits, ahoy! […] Towns can regulate use of their beaches. But what about the waters offshore?
- 1992, Championship Run (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 75, page 61
- Catalytic converters ahoy – Zeppelin's latest is one of those high-rev 3D driving games that simulates racing tracks from all over the world.
Usage notes[edit]
- Traditionally, when used from a ship to hail an approaching boat, the standard responses are:
Synonyms[edit]
- (to attract attention): oi, yo; see also Thesaurus:hey
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
Translations[edit]
used to hail a ship, etc
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Verb[edit]
ahoy (third-person singular simple present ahoys, present participle ahoying, simple past and past participle ahoyed)
- To hail with a cry of "ahoy".
Noun[edit]
ahoy (plural ahoys)
- An utterance of this interjection.
- There were many ahoys heard from the approaching ship.