yeux

Meaning

plural of œil, eyes

Concepts

eyes

eye

torsion

twisting

face

view

blue eyed

mince pies

Gender

♂️ Masculine

Pronounced as (IPA)

/jø/

Etymology

From Middle French yeulx, yeux, from Old French ieuz ~ ialz, plural form of oeil ~ oil ~ ueil ~ uel. A regular outcome of Latin oculōs, the accusative plural of oculus (the source of œil). Mildred Pope explains its phonetic development as becoming *[ˈɔːʎos] > *[ˈweʎts] > *[weuts] via regular sound changes, followed by a regular dissimilation of [weu] to [jeu] (see for example Latin locus > *[lweu] > Old French lieu, iocus > *[dʒweu] > Old French gieu > jeu). The resulting [jeuts] then becomes modern [jø].
Old and Middle French present many variant forms of this plural, including, from Godefroy's Dictionnaire du Moyen Français: ialz/yalz, yolz, olz/ols, uelz/uels/eus, ils, oulz.

Sentences

Elle porte deux rangées horizontales de quatre yeux de même taille .

She wears two horizontal rows of four eyes of the same size.