guaio

Italian

Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *wai (“expression of grief”).[1] Alternatively from Ancient Greek οὐαί (ouaí), from the verse in Revelation 8:13. Compare English woe, German Weh, Latin vae.

guaio m (plural guai)

(archaic or literary, usually in the plural) lament, lamentation, cry
- mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto III”, in Inferno [Hell]‎, lines 22–24; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate]‎, 2^nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:
  Quivi sospiri, pianti e alti guai
  risonavan per l'aere sanza stelle,
  per ch'io al cominciar ne lagrimai.
  Here sighs, cries, and loud laments resounded through the starless air, so that at their beginning I teared up
- 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio, “Giornata quinta, Novella Ⅷ. [Fifth day, Novel 8]”, in Decamerone [Decameron]‎, Tommaso Hedlin, published 1527, page 153:
  subitamente gli parve udire un grandissimo pianto, et guai altissimi messi da una donna
  He immediately thought he heard intense crying, and very loud laments emitted by a woman
- 1835, Giacomo Leopardi with Alessandro Donati, “Ⅱ. Sopra il monumento di Dante”, in Canti‎, Bari: Einaudi, published 1917, page 10, lines 84–85:
  […] in sempiterni guai
  pianga tua stirpe a tutto il mondo oscura
  May your lineage, unknown to the whole world, cry in eternal laments
(usually in the plural) hardship, misfortune
(by extension) trouble, difficulty, mess, pickle, fix, woe, jam
Io non ho guai. ― I do not have problems.

Siamo nei guai. ― We're in trouble.

guaio in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

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