yes: [OE] Yes is descended from Old English gese. It is thought that this was a compound formed from gēa ‘yes’ (ancestor of archaic English yea and related to German and Dutch ja ‘yes’) and sīe, the third-person present singular subjunctive of be, and that it therefore originally meant literally ‘yes, may it be so’. It was at first used as a response to negative questions, while yea was used for positive questions, but around the end of the 16th century this distinction began to disappear, and yea has since died out. => yea
yes (adv.)
Old English gise, gese "so be it!," probably from gea, ge "so" (see yea) + si "be it!," third person imperative of beon "to be" (see be). Originally stronger than simple yea. Used in Shakespeare mainly as an answer to negative questions. As a noun from 1712. Yes-man is first recorded 1912, American English.
实用例句
1. Ah yes, but think of all the family life they're missing.
是这样,不过别忘了他们错过了多少天伦之乐。
来自柯林斯例句
2. He was sitting there saying, "Yes, the figures make sense."
他坐在那儿说:“是的,这些数字可以理解。”
来自柯林斯例句
3. Mr Wade answers both questions with a qualified yes.
韦德先生对两个问题给出了不完全肯定的回答。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The Russian leader won a whopping 89.9 percent yes vote.