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woe is me. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
woe is me, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
woe is me in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Here, the oblique pronoun me denotes not an informal copulative complement (as in this is me), but an indirect object, wherefore it literally means woe is to me, an obsolete way of saying I feel woe; compare German mir ist traurig (“I feel sad”, literally “to-me is sad”). Idiomatically, it means woe is upon me. See also German weh ist mir and its descendant, Yiddish וויי איז מיר (vey iz mir), which are identical in form and meaning to the English expression.
Pronunciation
Interjection
woe is me
- (sometimes humorous) Used to show that the speaker feels distress or misery.
c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 266, column 1:Blasted with extasie. Oh, woe is me,
T'haue seene what I haue seene: see what I see.
Translations