ait

• IPA^(key): /eɪt/
• Rhymes: -eɪt

From Middle English eyt, eit, from Old English īġeoþ, īgoþ, iggaþ, iggoþ (“ait, eyot, islet, small island”), diminutive of īġ, ēġ, īeġ (“island”). More at eyot.

• eight
• eyet
• eyot

ait (plural aits)

1. An island in a river, especially the River Thames in England.
   • 1649, R. Hodges, unknown title:

     The ait where the osiers grew.

   • 1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 148:

     ‘[H]e the said seigneur, in quality of Lord Paramount, is to all intents and purposes invested with the sole right and property of the river running through his fief, together with […] all the islands and aits within it.’

   • 1833, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Autobiography: Truth and Fiction Relating to My Life trans. John Oxenford, book 9,

     Striking richness of vegetation which follows in the windings of the Rhine, marks its banks, islands, and aits.

   • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

     Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows.

• eyot

From Scots ait, ate, from Middle English ate, from Old English āte. More at oat.

ait (plural aits)

1. (Scotland) An oat.
   • 1785, Robbie Burns, Scotch Drink:

     Let husky wheat the haughs adorn,
     An' aits set up their awnie horn,

• IAT, ITA, TAI, TIA, Tai, Tia, ita, tai, tia

Inherited from Proto-Finnic *aitta (“storehouse”), probably from *ajadak (“to go (in a vehicle); to drive”) (with the suffix *-tta), from Proto-Finno-Ugric *aja- (“to drive; to hunt, chase”), borrowed from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Háȷ́ati (“to drive, lead”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti (“to be driving”), from *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”).

Cognate with Finnish aitta, Ingrian aitta, Livonian āita, Ludian ait and Võro ait.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑi̯t/, [ˈɑi̯tˑ]

• Rhymes: -ɑit
• Hyphenation: ait

ait (genitive aida, partitive aita)

1. a barn, granary, warehouse, storehouse (building for storing food and other supplies, in a farm household)

   vanaisa talust on alles ait, kelder, saun ning maakivist laudamüürid

   the barn, cellar, sauna and earthen stone board walls remain from my grandfather's farm

• ait in Sõnaveeb
• M. Langemets, M. Tiits, T. Valdre, L. Veskis, Ü. Viks, P. Voll, editors (2009), “ait”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language]‎ (online dictionary, in Estonian), 2nd edition, Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation)
• ait in Raadik, M., editor (2018), Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018, Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, →ISBN

• IPA^(key): /ɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛ

ait

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of avoir

• IPA^(key): /atʲ/

From Old Irish aitt (“pleasant, agreeable; strange, unusual”, adjective).

ait (genitive singular masculine ait, genitive singular feminine aite, plural aite, comparative aite)

1. pleasant, likeable
2. fine, excellent
3. comical; queer

ait m

1. genitive singular of at

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “ait”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “aitt”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, page 67

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.it/, [ˈäɪt̪]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.it/, [ˈäːit̪]

An unambiguous poetic attestation of the two short vowels, in dactylic hexameter:

‘Quid mē / lūdis?’, a/it, ‘Quis / tē, male / sāne, iu/bēbat...? (Ovid, Amores 3.7.77)

ait

1. third-person singular present/perfect active indicative of aiō

• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) as Homer sings (not canit): ut ait Homerus
    
  • (ambiguous) as Cicero says: ut ait Cicero (always in this order)
    

• aït (scholarly convention)

ait

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of aidier

From Middle English eten, from Old English etan, from Proto-West Germanic *etan.

• IPA^(key): /et/, /ɛt/

ait (third-person singular simple present aits, present participle aitin', simple past ?, past participle ?)

1. to eat

• “ait, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

From Middle English ete, ate, æte, from Old English ǣt (“food, eating”), from Proto-West Germanic *āt.

ait (plural aits)

1. meal; food

• “ait, n¹” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

From Middle English ote, from Old English āte.

• aet, ate, yit

ait (plural aits)

1. oat

• aiten

• “ait, n²” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Compare Norwegian ætt.

ait (plural aits)

1. (obsolete) custom, habit

• “ait, n³” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

From Ottoman Turkish عائد‎, عاید‎ (aid, ait), from Arabic عَائِد‎ (ʕāʔid). Compare Azerbaijani aid.

ait

1. [+ dative (object)] concerning, relating (to)

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “ait”, in Nişanyan Sözlük

• IPA^(key): /ai̯t/

ait

1. (literary) second-person singular imperfect indicative/conditional of mynd

• aet (colloquial)
• elet (colloquial)