Posted by Robert Dilley on June 28, 2004 at 16:33:08 from 216.211.6.28 user rdilley.
In Reply to: Re: aye aye, Sir - today posted by Peter Ceresole on June 28, 2004 at 10:56:48:
You didn't look far enough in the entry, John. The complete OED quotes ai, ai (1684, Bunyan); ey, ey (1823, Byron); ay, ay (1858, Longfellow) and, lastly, aye, aye (1878, Anon). The common factor is the comma between the repeated affirmative.
aye-aye is defined by Chambers as an aberrant squirrel-like lemur of Madagascar. Wonder what its aberration is? Does it only fancy chipmunks?