heyfre

Etymology
,, of disputed etymology; see that entry for discussion.

Forms with continue Late Old English, which develops from a syncopated  with simplification of the resulting consonant cluster. In these forms, the first-syllable vowel retained its length, regularly developing to  because the medial cluster  was identified as the onset of the second syllable (i.e. ). Forms with  and  come in part from forms where the cluster was split between the two syllables, resulting in regular shortening of the initial-syllable vowel (i.e. ), but as we will see, they also continue Old English trisyllabic. undefined In trisyllabic forms of this word, the first-syllabic vowel was regularly shortened due to trisyllabic shortening; the remaining forms with , develop when  was lost before it could cause the diphthongisation ("breaking") of the preceding vowel, while those with  are the result of this breaking. In forms with, was subject to fortition instead of being lost ( Liberman; compare , ); forms with  are further developments of these forms due to.

Noun

 * 1) A heifer young female cow.