• abby (obsolete)

From A.D. 1250 in Middle English abbey, abbeye (“convent headed by an abbot”) (compare archaic English abbaye), itself borrowed from Old French abaïe, abbaïe, abeïe, abbeïe (Modern French abbaye) from Late Latin or Ecclesiastical Latin abbātia, from Classical Latin abbās (“abbot”). Doublet of abbacy and Opatija. See abbot.

👁 Image

• IPA^(key): /ˈæb.i/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æbi
• Homophone: Abby

abbey (plural abbeys)

1. The office or dominion of an abbot or abbess. [First attested around 1150 to 1350.]^[1]
2. A monastery or society of people, secluded from the world and devoted to religion and celibacy, which is headed by an abbot or abbess; also, the monastic building or buildings. [First attested around 1150 to 1350.]^[1]

   Near-synonym: convent

   From 1199 to 1203 William Punchard was the abbot of the abbey of Rievaulx, which was part of the Cistercian order of monks.

3. The church of a monastery. [First attested around 1150 to 1350.]^[1]
   • 1987 December 17, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “A Diplomatic Incident”, in Yes, Prime Minister, season 2, episode 3, spoken by Bernard Woolley (Derek Fowlds):

     No, we can't have alphabetical seating in the abbey. You'd have Iraq and Iran next to each other (laugh track)... Plus Israel and Jordan all sitting in the same pew (laugh track)! We'd be in danger of starting World War III (laugh track)!

4. (British English) A residence that was previously an abbatial building.^[2][Mid 16^th century.]^[1]
5. (Somerset, dialect) The abele or white poplar (Populus alba).
   • 1825, James Jennings, Observations on some of the Dialects of the West of England, page 21:

     Ab'bey. The great white poplar: one of the varieties of the Populus alba.

   • 1873, W. P. Williams and W. A. Jones, A Glossary of Provincial Words and Phrases in use in Somersetshire, page 1:

     Abbey-lug, a branch of the abele tree.

• cloister
• convent
• friary
• monastery
• nunnery
• priory

• 👁 Image
  Abbey in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• “abbey”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• bebay

• abbeye, abbeie, abbay, abbegh

Borrowed from Old French abaie, from Late Latin or Ecclesiastical Latin abbātia. Doublet of abbathie.

• IPA^(key): /aˈbæi̯(ə)/

abbey (plural abbeyes)

1. An abbey (a building or monastic institution).
2. The church located inside a monastery.
3. (rare) Abbotship; abbacy.

• English: abbey
• Scots: aibbey, aibey

• “abbeie, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 7 July 2018.

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=abbey&oldid=90001376"