Etymology

whoa

W4H4O1A1

Today it means: Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down. Full definition →

Middle English ho ← Old Norse hó!
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The story

  1. Old Norse · derived fromhó!
  2. Middle English · inherited fromho
  3. English todaywhoa

Whoa (c. 1843) is a variant of woa (c. 1840), itself a variant of wo (c. 1787), from who (c. 1450), ultimately from Middle English ho, hoo (interjection), probably from Old Norse hó! (interjection, also, a shepherd's call). Compare German ho, Old French ho ! (“hold!, halt!”).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishho all →

kewhough

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.