whey

English

Alternative forms

• whig (dialectal)
• whay (obsolete)

Pronunciation

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

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: way, weigh, wey (wine–whine merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English whey, wheye, whei, from Old English hwǣġ, hwæiġ, hwæġ, hweġ (“whey”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwaij (“whey”) (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”)).

Noun

whey (usually uncountable, plural wheys)

2. 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, chapter XX, in Wuthering Heights‎^[1]:

     {...} 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
• sack-whey
• wheyey
• whey-faced
• wheyface, whey-faced
• wheylike
• wine whey

 

Translations

liquid remaining after milk has been curdled

• Albanian: hirrë (sq) f, thartor (sq) m
• Arabic: شِرْش m (širš), مَاء الْجُبْن m (māʔ al-jubn), مَصْل m (maṣl)

  Egyptian Arabic: شرش m (šerš)

• Armenian: շիճուկ (hy) (šičuk)
• Azerbaijani: zərdab
• Basque: gazur
• Belarusian: сыро́ватка f (syróvatka)
• Breton: laezh-glas (br) m
• Bulgarian: сурова́тка (bg) f (surovátka)
• Catalan: xerigot (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 乳清 (jyu⁵ cing¹)

  Mandarin: 乳清 (zh) (rǔqīng)

• Czech: syrovátka (cs) f
• Danish: valle (da) c
• 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)

• Hebrew: מֵי גְּבִינָה
• Hindi: दूध का पानी m (dūdh kā pānī), मठ्ठा m (maṭhṭhā)
• Hungarian: savó (hu)
• Icelandic: mysa (is) f
• Ido: selakto (io)
• Indonesian: air dadih (id), laktoserum
• Irish: meadhg m
• Italian: siero di latte m
• Japanese: 乳清 (ja) (にゅうせい, nyūsei)
• Kazakh: сарысу (sarysu)
• Khmer: ទឹកដោះថ្លា (tɨk dɑh thlaa)
• Korean: 유청(乳淸) (yucheong)
• Kyrgyz: сары суу (sarı suu)
• Latin: serum (la) n
• Latvian: sūkalas f pl
• Lithuanian: išrūgos f pl
• Luxembourgish: Wässeg m
• Macedonian: сурутка f (surutka), ѕира f (dzira)
• Malay: dadih susu, whey
• Maori: wai karera, wei
• Norman: meigue
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: 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: су̏рутка f

  Roman: sȕrutka (sh) f

• Sicilian: seru m
• 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
• Tajik: зардоб (zardob)
• Tarifit: aɣi m
• Thai: หางนม (th) (hǎang-nom)
• Turkish: kesilmiş süt suyu, peynir altı suyu
• Ukrainian: сиро́ватка f (syróvatka), дзер m (dzer)
• Uzbek: zardob (uz)
• Vietnamese: váng sữa, nước sữa
• Welsh: maidd m
• Yiddish: סראָוועטקע f (srovetke), סיראָוועטקע f (sirovetke), סעראָוועטקע f (serovetke)

See also

• bland
• buttermilk
• milk
• yogurt

 

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic, variation on wahey.

Interjection

whey

1. (UK, dated) A shout for attention
   • 1928, Ruth Manning-Sanders, Waste Corner:

     He swayed over to the door, peered out, shouted "whey!" and came back, looking severe.

   • 1982, Frank Entwisle, Abroad in England:

     somebody who was more or less to their senses, shouted... ' Whey! ... Had on lads!' and everybody was trying to get wocken up and sorted out.

2. (UK) A shout of enthusiasm or delight
   • 2011 September 1, Case File 12: The Case of the Messy Mucked Up Masterpiece, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     ... apart from Max, who rode his pallet like a surfboard with a huge grin plastered across his face. “Wheyyyyyyy!” Max yelled with delight.

   • 2016 December 30, Hahn Moo-Sook, The House of Pomegranate Trees, Literature Translation Institute of Korea, →ISBN:

     Several drunken men shouted from the corner. “Wheyyyy, showtime! Go on, go on!”

3. (UK) Shouted when someone drops a glass or other crockery, especially in a pub.
   • 2014 February 18, Catriona Harvey-Jenner, “25 things only bar staff will understand”, in Cosmopolitan UK‎^[2]:

     12. Smashing a glass and the whole bar choruses "WHEYYYY".

   • 2020 February 10, Claire Galloway, “15 things only people who have worked in an Edinburgh pub will understand”, in Edinburgh Live‎^[3]:

     If they don't shout "wheyyy" when you smash a glass, did it even smash?

   • 2024 May 9, Oisín McKenna, Evenings and Weekends, HarperCollins UK, →ISBN:

     the sloshed post-work boozers all shout "Wheyyyyyyy!' at a glass that's smashed on the floor

Middle English

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

From Old English hwǣġ, hwæiġ, hwæġ, hweġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hwaij (“whey”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hwæi̯/
• (dialectal) IPA^(key): /wæi̯/, /xwæi̯/

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.