woe

Etymology

From Middle English wo, wei, wa, from Old English wā, wēa, from Proto-Germanic *wai, whence also Dutch wee, German weh, Danish ve, Yiddish וויי‎ (vey). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wai. Compare Latin vae, Albanian vaj, French ouais, Ancient Greek οὐαί (ouaí), Persian وای‎ (vây) (Turkish vay, a Persian borrowing), and Armenian վայ (vay).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /wəʊ/
• (US) enPR: wō, IPA^(key): /woʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophone: whoa (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

woe (countable and uncountable, plural woes)

1. Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness.

   Synonyms: grief, sorrow, misery

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost

     Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, / Sad instrument of all our woe, she took.

   • 1717, Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard

     Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose / That well-known name awakens all my woes.

   • 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.

2. A curse; a malediction.
   • South

     Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?

Adjective

woe (comparative more woe, superlative most woe)

1. (obsolete) woeful; sorrowful
   • Robert of Brunne

     His clerk was woe to do that deed.

   • Chaucer

     Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed.

   • Edmund Spenser

     And looking up he waxed wondrous woe.

Interjection

woe

1. (obsolete) An exclamation of grief.
   • William Shakespeare

     O, woe the day!

Anagrams

• owe

Etymology

From Middle Dutch woe, from Old Dutch *wuo, from Proto-Germanic *hwō.

Adverb

woe

1. where

   Boe is Sjeng? ― Where is John?

Etymology

From Old Dutch *wuo, from Proto-Germanic *hwō.

Adverb

woe

1. (eastern) Alternative form of hoe

Pronoun

woe

1. Alternative form of we

References

• “we (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 10 May 2018.