View source for Key - quay

'''Key''' and '''quay''' {{Bridges}} '''Key''' and '''quay''' are both pronounced 'kee' ({{IPA|ki:}}).
*A ''' key''' is basically (''[[OED]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s '''key n.<sup>1</sup>''') the device used to open a lock, or door etc.
*More [[figurative]]ly, it is applied to 
**a list, often numbered, explaining details of a picture, etc;
**originally a term of military art, meaning a position which serves to 'open' an enemy's defences, or, for defenders, "A place which from the strategic advantages of its position gives its possessor control over the passage into or from a certain district, territory, inland sea, etc." (''[[OED]]''); now often applied more figuratively to 'the way into' many things, such as 'unlocking' the secrets of a scientific or mathematical problem, or a particular patient's problems, etc;
**in music, the particular 'key signature' of a piece - that is, the scale, or system of notes depending on the dominant note, in which a particular piece is to be played;
***it is also used as the name of each 'note' on a piano, etc - the white or black levers which are struck to make a note sound.  Hence '''keyboard''' instruments;
***similar devices for making correct notes in wind instruments, and later in telegraph and radio devices for sending code over wires.
*A '''key''' is also (''[[OED]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s '''key n.<sup>3</sup>''') a variant spelling of the word spelled often as 'cay' , 'a reef', a 'sandbank', 'a low-lying island'. The original Spanish word was ''cayo'': it is usually spelled '''key''' in such USA locations as the Florida Keys (including Key West and Key Largo - the latter also the name of a much-praised film by John Huston starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, and Claire Trevor. It was made in 1948, and is classed as a ''noir''.)
*'''key n.<sup>2</sup>''' is another variant spelling of '''quay''', which oddly enough shares its derivation with that of ''[[OED]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s '''key n.<sup>3</sup>''' above. The Spanish ''cayo'' ('shoal', 'reef', 'low-lying island') is [[cognate]] with the Old French ''kay'', ''kai'' or ''cay''. The Old French was modernized to ''quai'' (pronounced 'kay', /ke:/). It was this spelling that became the standard English '''quay''' for the artificial constructions imitating sandbanks and so on at which ships were loaded. Nowadays, they do not resemble natural ''cayo''s at all, usually being made of stone, and always having substantial vertical faces to enable the ships to abut the land.

[[Category:homophones]]
[[Category:etymological curiosities]]
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[[Category:Bridges I]]