Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • interjection Said loudly three times in succession to call a court to order when the session begins.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • interjection Hear; attend; -- a term used by criers of courts to secure silence before making a proclamation. It is repeated three times.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • interjection Hear ye. Attend. (Called by public criers or in court usually three times to secure silence).
  • noun A cry of "oyez".

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman French, hear ye, imperative pl. of oyer, to hear, from Latin audīre; see au- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman and Middle French oyez, oiez, imperative plural of oir ("to hear"), from Old French oïr ("to hear"), from Latin audiō ("to hear").

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