looky

Etymology
None of the various attested forms appear in the OED, in Victor & Dalzell’s Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, nor in Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary.

According to the RHD, 'looky' (also 'lookee') is an interjection attested from 1875–80 which is an alternative form of the imperative look ye! Similarly, the linguist Andrew L. Sihler indicates that ye, the now-archaic subjective form of the English 2nd pers. plural pronoun, “is fossilized in looky (here) …”.

Verb

 * 1)  Look.
 * 2) * 1877, Burdette, Robert Jones. The Rise and Fall of the Mustache: And Other ‘Hawk-eyetems’. Burlington Publishing Co., 1877. p. 15.
 * "… Cain would shout ‘Oh, lookee, lookee pa! what’s that?’"
 * "… Cain would shout ‘Oh, lookee, lookee pa! what’s that?’"

Usage notes
Looky is almost always used imperatively, and followed by "here", "there", or "at".

Related terms

 * looky-loo