ēage
neuter
The Old English word for eye is ēage.
The word refers to the organ of sight.
Meaning: organ (noun)
Is it said differently in some regions?
In parts of the Danelaw, the Norse word auga was used for "eye."
How does it change in a sentence?
The neuter noun ēage is used for the nominative, accusative and vocative singular cases, while the plural form is ēagan.
Did you know?
- In many Old English poetic compounds, instead of using the word ēage, poets would use metaphors like 'world-candle' or 'face-jewel' to refer to the eye.
- The Old English word ēage shares an ancient ancestor with the Greek word ōps, which is the root of the English word 'optics'.
- The transition from ēage to the modern 'eye' involved the loss of the final vowel sounds, a process that mirrored the general collapse of the Old English inflectional system.
Example sentences for Old English are not verified yet.
Example conversation
Osric and Eadgyth are talking about a small injury.
- OsricHwæt is in þīnum ēage?What is in your eye?
- EadgythLȳtel dūst is hēr.A little dust is here.
- OsricLæt mē sēon þæt ēage.Let me see that eye.
- EadgythIc þancie þē, Osric.I thank you, Osric.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “eye” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
