woe

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).

• (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)

woe (countable and uncountable, plural woes)

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

   Synonyms: grief, sorrow, misery

   • 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[illiam] 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: […] [Strahan and Preston] for T[homas] Cadell and W[illiam] 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.

2. 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!

3. 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[ames] 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?

woe (comparative more woe, superlative most woe)

1. (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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 17:

     Prospero: I am woe for't, Sir.

woe

1. (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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 2:

     Miranda: O woe, the day.

• owe

• wu, wuë (Eupen)
• wooe (Krefeld)
• boe (Maastrichtian)
• wo

woe

1. where

   Woe is Sjeng? ― Where is Sjeng?

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

woe

1. (eastern) Alternative form of hoe

woe

1. Alternative form of we (“we”)