wowe

Middle English

Alternative forms

• wawe, weowe, wou, wow

Etymology

From Old English wāwa, a variant of wēa, from Proto-Germanic *waiwô (hence a doublet of we (“woe”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɔu̯(ə)/

Noun

wowe (plural wowes)

1. Woe, discomfort; a state of intense depression and sorrowfulness.
2. A lack of luck or fortuitousness; bad fortune.
3. A unlucky or unfortunate event; something that feels negative.
4. Injury, painfulness; the result of physical harming.
5. (rare) upsetness, unhappiness.

Usage notes

This word would have come to sound the same as woe in the Early Modern English period and was probably conflated with it.

References

• “wōwe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-30.