Woe
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /wəʊ/
- US enPR: wÅ, IPA: /woÊŠ/
- Rhymes: -əʊ
- Homophones: whoa (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Origin
From Middle English wo, wei, wa, from Old English wÄ, wÄ“a, from Proto-Germanic *wai, whence also Dutch wee, German weh, Danish ve, Yiddish וויי. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wai. Compare Latin vae.