rye

Etymology

From Middle English rie, reighe, from Old English ryġe, from Proto-West Germanic *rugi, from Proto-Germanic *rugiz, from Proto-Indo-European *Hrugʰís. Germanic cognates include Dutch and West Frisian rogge, Low German Rogg, German Roggen, Rocken, Old Norse rugr (Danish rug, Swedish råg); non-Germanic cognates include Russian рожь (rožʹ) and Latvian rudzi.

noun

1. A grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder.
2. The grass Secale cereale from which the grain is obtained.
3. Rye bread.
4. (US, Canada) Rye whiskey.
   I bought a pint of rye at the liquor counter and carried it over to the stools and set it down on the cracked marble counter. 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 159
   Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey ’n rye/Singin’, "This’ll be the day that I die." 1971, “American Pie”, in American Pie, performed by Don McLean
5. (US, Canada) A drink of rye.
   It concerns the gnomelike quality of the average American at a party. I have been to many parties where staid American business men have been transformed by a few ryes or bourbons into unpredictable gremlins out for adventure. 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 17
6. Caraway (from the mistaken assumption that the whole seeds, often used to season rye bread, are the rye itself)
7. Ryegrass, any of the species of Lolium.
8. A disease of hawks.
   And if it [vndeꝛ the peꝛch] be grene ſhe engenderith the Ry. The condicion of this euell is this, it wil ariſe in the hede and make the hede to ſwell, ⁊ the iyen all glaymous, and dyrke, and bot it haue helpe: it will downe in to the legges, and maake the legges to rancle, and if it goo fro the legges in to the hede a gayne, thi hawke is bot looſt. 1486, Juliana Berners, Book of Saint Albans
   Of all the diseases that belongs to these Hawkes, there bee onely three that they bee most subiect vnto, which is the Rye, the Crampe, and the Craye. 1618, Symon Latham, Latham's Falconry