ayre

From an unattested Norn word, from Old Norse eyrr. Compare Icelandic eyri, Norwegian øyr.

ayre (plural ayres)

1. A narrow bar of sand or gravel formed by the sea; a sandbank.

ayre (plural ayres)

1. Archaic spelling of air.
   • 1856, Notes and Queries, page 425

     It is precisely to this—not destruction, but dissolution—(for dissolve is the poet's word) this melting into thin ayre, of the world itself, that Tooke maintains the word rack, i. e. reek, to be most- appropriate. And I think he was right in so doing.

   • 1870, Michael Drayton, Endimion and Phoebe: Ideas Latmus

     ... Thus giues his sorrowes passage from his brest ; Sweet leaues (qd. he) which with the ayre doe tremble, Oh how your motions do my thoughts resemble, With that milde breath by which onely moue, Whisper my words in silence to my Loue  ...

• Arey, Ayer, Raye, Reay, Yare, aery, eyra, y'are, yare, year

From Old Spanish ayre, from Latin āer, from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr).

ayre m (Latin spelling)

1. wind

From Latin āer, from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr).

• IPA^(key): [ˈaj.ɾe]

ayre m (plural ayres)

1. air
   • c. 1250, Alfonso X, Lapidario, f.

     Sotil es de cuerpo ca ſe muda aſſi como el ayre que quando es claro es ella clara. ⁊ quando turuio turuia.

     Its light of body, for it changes like the air; it is clear when it is clear, and cloudy when it is cloudy.

• Ladino: ayre
• Spanish: aire