Flag proposal [OT]

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Sun, 12 Jun 2011 04:36:55 -0400, Alix Pexton  
<alix.DOT.pexton at gmail.dot.com> wrote:

> On 12/06/2011 02:40, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
>> On Sat, 11 Jun 2011 13:04:47 -0400, Andrej Mitrovic
>> <andrej.mitrovich at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 6/11/11, Alix Pexton <alix.DOT.pexton at gmail.dot.com> wrote:
>>>> On 11/06/2011 06:18, Andrej Mitrovic wrote:
>>>>> We should rename Yes and No to Yay and Nay to make them alignable,  
>>>>> and
>>>>> even more importantly to make us appear as old Englishmen!
>>>>
>>>> "Yay" and "Nay" are too similar looking, but luckily, "Yay" is not
>>>> actually a old English word :) A more correct alternative would be
>>>> "Aye" (pronounced the same as "eye"), which (along with "Nay") is  
>>>> still
>>>> used for some voting actions (such as councillors deciding where to go
>>>> for lunch). I myself say it al least 20 times a day :)
>>>>
>>>> A...
>>>>
>>>
>>> Oh damn, yay is what teenage girls would say, not old Englishmen. My
>>> bad, it really is "Aye". :p
>>
>> You were phonetically right :) It's yea or nay.
>>
>> http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/yea-or-nay
>>
>> My son's most recent birthday (3 years old) was a farm-themed birthday,
>> and we asked people to RSVP yay or neigh :P
>>
>> So I guess there's all kinds of kooky fun you can have with flags...
>>
>> -Steve
>
> Nope, its definitely Aye when used for voting, (at least it is round  
> here) as in "all those in favour, say aye", "ayes to the right" and "the  
> ayes have it". Maybe southerners say this "yea" word of which you speak,  
> we don't hold with their strange customs in these parts ^^

I don't deny that aye is used frequently for voting.  All I was saying is,  
the correct expression is yea or nay, not yay or nay.  Andrej thought it  
was actually aye or nay, which I've never heard as an expression.

I'm not sure it's used anymore, but it's definitely an expression that was  
used for voting (see my dictionary reference).

-Steve