Meaning

originFrom Middle English þe. Early press typographies in late 15th century lacked the letter þ (“thorn”), for which the letter y was substituted due to their resemblance in blackletter hand (etymological y was for a while distinguished by a dot, ẏ (14th c.–15th c.)). Short form yͤ continued long after the digraph th had replaced þ elsewhere. "Ye" for "þe" continued in manuscripts through the 18th…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0