woe
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English
Etymology
From Middle English wo, wei, wa, from Old English wā, wǣ, from Proto-West Germanic *wai, from Proto-Germanic *wai (interjection), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wáy (interjection).
See also Dutch wee, German Weh, weh, Danish ve, Yiddish וויי (vey); also Latin vae, Albanian vaj, French ouais, Ancient Greek οὐαί (ouaí), Persian وای (vây) (Turkish vay, a Persian borrowing), and Armenian վայ (vay).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /wəʊ/
- (General American) enPR: wō, IPA(key): /woʊ/
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -əʊ
- Homophone: whoa (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Noun
woe (countable and uncountable, plural woes)
- Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness.
- 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the book number)”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:
- Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, / Sad instrument of all our woe, she took.
- 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: W Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, , published 1717, →OCLC:
- Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose / That well-known name awakens all my woes.
- 1808, [Hannah More], chapter VI, in Cœlebs in Search of a Wife. , volume I, London: for T Cadell and W Davies, , →OCLC, pages 68–69:
- But if there was a competition between a ſick family and a new broach, the broach was ſure to carry the day. This would not have been the caſe, had they been habituated to viſit themſelves the abodes of penury and woe.
- October 14 2017, Sandeep Moudgal, The Times of India, Rains devastate families, political parties make beeline to apply balm on open wounds:
- The Friday night rains which wrecked families in Kurabarahalli saw all the three major political parties making a beeline to express their condolences, listen to their woes and provide compensation in the hope of garnering their goodwill ahead of the 2018 assembly elections.
- Calamity, trouble.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Revelation 8:13:
- And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
- A curse; a malediction.
- 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: J Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, , published 1727, →OCLC:
- Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?
Derived terms
Translations
grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity
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Adjective
woe (comparative more woe, superlative most woe)
- (obsolete) Woeful; sorrowful
- 1303, Robert of Brunne, Handlyng synne:
- hys clerk was wo to do þat dede
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 53:
- And looking vp, when as his shield he lakt, / And sword saw not, he wexed wondrous woe
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 17:
- Prospero: I am woe for't, Sir.
Interjection
woe
- (archaic) An exclamation of grief.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 2:
- Miranda: O woe, the day.
Translations
exclamation of grief
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Anagrams
Limburgish
Alternative forms
Adverb
woe
- where
- Woe is Sjeng? ― Where is Sjeng?
Middle Dutch
Etymology
From Old Dutch *wuo, from Proto-Germanic *hwō.
Adverb
woe
- (eastern) Alternative form of hoe
Middle English
Pronoun
woe
- Alternative form of we (“we”)