y

there (at a place); there, thither (to there); Used as a pronoun to replace an adverbial phrase starting with à.

“Il est dans la maison. Il y est.” — He is in the house. He is there.

10th century; from Old French i, from Latin hīc (“here”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰi-ḱe (“this, here”)), with meaning influenced by Old French iv (“there, thither”), itself from Latin ibī. Derivation from the latter poses difficulty from a phonetic standpoint. Compare Catalan hi.