#wikitionary

For reasons relating to work, I was looking up something, and got a bit sidetracked, that sidetracking is what this post is about:

So, English has 40 sounds and way more than that ways to spell them, and this means all of these words are pronounced exactly the same: to, too, two, tew, and 2. FYI, in the UK tew can mean prep work, labor, trouble or worry. In the US, if it's used it means constant work, worry, or excitement, as a noun. And it used to mean a cord, string, rope, chain, or net. As a verb... tew

For reasons, what got me to the various words above was this word: hye and its comparative, and superlative forms, hyer, and hyest. Which are the obsolete spellings of high, higher, and highest (Bring 'em back, please!), which are, naturally pronounced the same as their modern spellings. Of course, hye can also mean haste, hurry, to go quickly. It also was in Old English the pronoun for he and they (heo was she back then). Hye can also mean to raise up, to honor, to respect, etc.

Which brings this back to what I was looking up on this Transgender Day Of Remembrance (and Resilience), and that was "What is the correct contraction for They (singular) is, if there is one?"

The answer is: They's. But you must be careful, because they's can also mean "There is" and Their (possessive). I got off subject because, well, me being me, whose major personality trait is Curios(ity) (I will go down the rabbit hole and the worm hole, folks.) This happened, this time, because Wiktionary offers up anagrams. And they's becomes hyest, sythe (older spelling of scythe), and ythes. Ythes is an older poetic form of waves. Ythe, wave, can also be spelled ithe, uðe, uþe, uþæ, yþe.