docked the ferry at the quay to let the passengers off
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The quays around this warehouse saw millions of emigrants board ships bound for destinations such as America and Canada.—Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 19 May 2025 Instead, the 54 rooms and four suites feature walls decorated with playful gold stencil motifs and views of either the Seine or the quay, and kids and adults alike will love the novelty of sleeping on a boat.—Celeste Moure, AFAR Media, 2 May 2025 While many of the street-side cafes lining the river are on the touristy side, the handful of spots actually on the quay are anything but.—Lane Nieset, Travel + Leisure, 19 Apr. 2025 The Romans established Londinium just north of the river’s marshy valley after invading Britain in 43 C.E. Colossal wooden quays stood on the ancient settlement’s riverbank.—Sean Kingsley, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for quay
Word History
Etymology
Middle English keye, kaye, borrowed from Anglo-French kay, caye, keye, corresponding to Middle French (Picardy) kay, going back to Gaulish *kagi̯o- (late Gaulish caio) "enclosure," going back to Celtic — more at haw entry 1
Note:
The spelling quay, first appearing in the sixteenth century, follows modern French. As noted by the Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, the expected outcome of Middle English keye would be /keɪ/ in Modern English. — The form caio, glossed "breialo sive bigardio" (meaning perhaps "demarcated field or wood"), is found in Endlicher's Glossary, a collection of words dated in its earliest version to the eighth century that were taken by the glossator to be of Gaulish origin (and hence entitled "De nominibus Gallicis"). Compare also cai, glossed cancelli "latticed barrier" in Late Latin texts (see Thesaurus linguae Latinae s.v.). In Normandy and Picardy, from where kay spread to France generally, the original reference was perhaps to a barrier demarcating part of a seashore or river bank that was built up with stone or earth to make a loading area for boats. The corresponding word in Poitou was chai.
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