awe

English

Etymology

From Middle English aw, awe, agh, awȝe, borrowed from Old Norse agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz (“terror, dread”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʰ- (“to be upset, afraid”). Displaced native Middle English eye, eyȝe, ayȝe, eȝȝe, from Old English ege, æge (“fear, terror, dread”), from the same Proto-Germanic root.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: ô, IPA^(key): /ɔː/

  • (file)

• (US) enPR: ô, IPA^(key): /ɔ/

  • (file)

• (cot–caught merger) enPR: ä, IPA^(key): /ɑ/
• Homophone: aw
  • (in non-rhotic accents): oar, or, ore, o'er
• Rhymes: -ɔː

Noun

awe (usually uncountable, plural awes)

1. A feeling of fear and reverence.
   • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 172:

     Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.

2. A feeling of amazement.
   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     For several minutes no one spoke; I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as was I. All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us as might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly been miraculously transported through ether to an unknown world.

3. (archaic) Power to inspire awe.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

awe (third-person singular simple present awes, present participle awing or aweing, simple past and past participle awed)

1. (transitive) To inspire fear and reverence in.
   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “1/1/3”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days‎:

     That large room had always awed Ivor: even as a child he had never wanted to play in it, for all that it was so limitless, the parquet floor so vast and shiny and unencumbered, the windows so wide and light with the fairy expanse of Kensington Gardens.

2. (transitive) To control by inspiring dread.
   • 1982 August 21, Bob Nelson, “Harnessing Our Anger”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 6, page 5:

     While a sense of outrage is the only rational response to atrocity, if that outrage is maintained at too high a level over too long a time it can generate feelings of impotence, as we permit ourselves to be awed by this irrational act of violence.

Synonyms

• (inspire reverence): enthral, enthrall; overwhelm

Derived terms

• awed

Translations

Anagrams

• AEW, EAW, WAE, WEA, eaw, wae

Anyi

Noun

awe

1. rice

   mɩn nin a tʋn awe.

   My mother prepared rice.

Baoule

Noun

awe

1. hunger

Gun

Etymology

From Proto-Gbe *-ve or Proto-Gbe *-we. Cognates include Fon àwè, Saxwe Gbe owè, Adja eve, Ewe eve

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /à.wè/

• Audio (Nigeria)

  (file)

Numeral

àwè

1. two

Adjective

àwè

1. two

Related terms

Maori

Noun

awe

1. soot
2. white feather

Mapudungun

Adverb

awe (Raguileo spelling)

1. quickly, promptly.
2. soon

Synonyms

• arol

References

• Wixaleyiñ: Mapucezugun-wigkazugun pici hemvlcijka (Wixaleyiñ: Small Mapudungun-Spanish dictionary), Beretta, Marta; Cañumil, Dario; Cañumil, Tulio, 2008.

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old Norse agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂égʰos. Doublet of eye.

Alternative forms

• age, aghe, aȝe, ahe, au, aue, aw

Pronunciation

• (Early ME) IPA^(key): /ˈaɣ̞ə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈau̯(ə)/
• Rhymes: -au̯(ə)

Noun

awe (uncountable)

1. awe, wonder, reverence
2. fear, horror
3. that which elicits or incites horror; something horrifying

Related terms

• agheful
• aghlich (rare)
• awles (rare)
• awen (rare)

Descendants

• English: awe
• Scots: awe, aw

References

• “aue, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-11.

Etymology 2

Adverb

awe

1. Alternative form of away

Etymology 3

Noun

awe

1. Alternative form of ewe

Papiamentu

Alternative forms

• awé (alternative spelling)

Etymology

From Portuguese hoje and Spanish hoy and Kabuverdianu ochi.

Pronoun

awe

1. today

Swahili

Verb

awe

1. inflection of -wa:
   1. third-person singular subjunctive affirmative
   2. m-wa class subject inflected singular subjunctive affirmative

Tabaru

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

awe

1. a thread

References

• Edward A. Kotynski (1988) “Tabaru phonology and morphology”, in Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session, volume 32, Summer Institute of Linguistics

Tooro

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /áːwe/

Pronoun

-awe (declinable)

1. your (second-person singular possessive pronoun)

Usage notes

• This modifier, when used in the indefinite forms, causes the word before it to lose its high tone.

Inflection

See also

References

• Kaji, Shigeki (2007) A Rutooro Vocabulary‎, Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), →ISBN, pages 418-419

Western Arrernte

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /awə/

Interjection

awe

1. yes

Yoruba

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /à.wé/

Noun

àwé

1. friend

   Synonyms: ọ̀rẹ́, olùkù

2. an unknown person

   Táni àwé yẹn? ― Who is that unknown person?

Usage notes

• More commonly used in Central Yoruba dialects

References

• Aremo, Bolaji (2012) How Yoruba and Igbo Became Different Languages‎, Scribo Publications, →ISBN