whey

whey

English

Alternative forms

• whig (dialectal)
• whay (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English whey, wheye, whei, from Old English hwǣġ, hwæiġ, hwæġ, hweġ (“whey”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwai (compare Saterland Frisian Waai, Woaie, West Frisian waai, Dutch wei, Low German Wei, German Low German Wei), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *kʷey- (“to pile up, build”) (compare Old Church Slavonic чинъ (činŭ, “order”), Ancient Greek ποιέω (poiéō, “to pile up, make”), Sanskrit कय (káya, “every one”)).

Pronunciation

• enPR: hwā, wā, IPA^(key): /ʍeɪ/, /weɪ/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: way, weigh, wey (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

whey (usually uncountable, plural wheys)

1. The liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained in the process of making cheese.
   • 1805, Songs for the Nursery, page 23:

     Little Miss Muffet, She sat on a tuffet, Eating of curds and whey; There came a little spider, Who sat down beside her, And frighted Miss Muffet away.

   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, chapter XX:

     {...} if I wished any blessing in the world, it was to find him a worthy object of pride; and I’m bitterly disappointed with the whey-faced, whining wretch!

Coordinate terms

• curds

Derived terms

• curds and whey
• wheyey
• wheyface, whey-faced
• wheylike

 

Translations

liquid remaining after milk has been curdled

Albanian: hirrë (sq) f, thartor (sq) Arabic: شِرْش‎ m (širš), مَاء الْجُبْن‎ m (māʾ al-jubn), مَصْل‎ m (maṣl) Egyptian Arabic: شرش‎ m (šerš) Armenian: շիճուկ (hy) (šičuk) Basque: gazur Belarusian: сыро́ватка f (syróvatka) Breton: laezh-glas (br) m Bulgarian: сурова́тка (bg) f (surovátka) Catalan: xerigot (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 乳清 (zh) (rǔqīng) Czech: syrovátka (cs) f Danish: valle (da) Dutch: wei (nl) m or f Esperanto: selakto Estonian: vadak (et) Faroese: mysa f Finnish: hera (fi) French: petit-lait (fr) m Galician: soro (gl) m Georgian: შრატი (šraṭi) German: Molke (de) f Greek: ξινόγαλο (el) n (xinógalo), ορός γάλακτος m (orós gálaktos) Ancient: ὀρός m (orós) Hungarian: savó (hu) Icelandic: mysa (is) f Ido: selakto (io) Irish: meadhg m Italian: siero di latte Japanese: 乳清 (ja) (にゅうせい, nyūsei) Korean: 유청 (yucheong) Latin: serum (la) n Luxembourgish: Wässeg m Macedonian: сурутка f (surutka), ѕира f (dzira) Malay: dadih susu Maori: wai karera Norwegian: myse m Ossetian: сулу (sulu) (Digor dialect) Persian: آب‌پنیر‎ (fa) (âb-panir), پنیرآب‎ (panir-âb) Polish: serwatka (pl) f Portuguese: soro (pt) m Punjabi: ਪਨੀਰ ਪਾਣੀ m (panīr pāṇī) Romanian: zer (ro) n Russian: сы́воротка (ru) f (sývorotka) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: сурутка f Roman: surutka (sh) f Slovak: srvátka (sk) f Slovene: sírotka (sl) f Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: serowatka f, srowatka f Upper Sorbian: syrowatka f, syrwatka f Spanish: suero (es) m Swedish: vassle (sv) c, vassla (sv) c Thai: หางนม (th) (hǎang-nom) Turkish: kesilmiş sütün suyu, peynir altı suyu Ukrainian: сирова́тка f (syrovátka), дзер m (dzer) Welsh: maidd m Westrobothnian: missu f Yiddish: סראָוועטקע‎ f (srovetke), סיראָוועטקע‎ f (sirovetke)

See also

• bland
• buttermilk
• milk
• yogurt

 

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• wheyy, whei, wheye, wheyȝe, wey, whay, qwhey, weyȝe, whaye, wege

Etymology

Inherited from Old English hwǣġ, hwæiġ, hwæġ, hweġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hwai.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʍɛi̯/
• (dialectal) IPA^(key): /wɛi̯/, /xʍɛi̯/

Noun

whey (uncountable)

1. The leftovers from milk curdled during cheesemaking; whey.
2. (rare) The result of strained almond milk.

Descendants

• English: whey (whig)
• Scots: quhaye, quhay, quhey, whey, fey

References

• “whei, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-01.