matey.
Sociable or friendly.
Meaning & usage
Sociable or friendly.
You've been very matey with that new bird.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Germanic *ga- Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d-der. Proto-Germanic *matiz Proto-Germanic *matjô Proto-West Germanic *gamatjôder. Old Saxon gimatoder. Middle Low German matebor. Middle English mate English mate English -y English matey From mate + -y.
Diminutive of mate, friend.
Hello, matey, just back from the pub?
A fellow sailor; often used affectedly, especially when portraying a pirate.
Ahoy mateys, scrub the deck!
A dockyard worker.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Germanic *ga- Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d-der. Proto-Germanic *matiz Proto-Germanic *matjô Proto-West Germanic *gamatjôder. Old Saxon gimatoder. Middle Low German matebor. Middle English mate English mate English -y English matey From mate + -y.
Alternative form of maty (“native house servant in India”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.