Etymology

wo

W4O1

Today it means: A falconer's call to a hawk. Full definition →

Middle English wough ← Old English wāh ← Proto-West Germanic *waig
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wo · interjection1

Variant of who.

wo · noun2

Variant of woe.

wo · noun, verb3

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*weyk-“to bend, twist”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*waigaz“wall”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*waig
  4. Old English · inherited fromwāh
  5. Middle English · inherited fromwough
  6. English todaywo

From Middle English wough, woh, wouh, from Old English wāh, wāg (“a wall, partition”), from Proto-West Germanic *waig, from Proto-Germanic *waigaz (“wall”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to bend, twist”). Cognate with Scots wauch, vauch.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishwough all →

wough

Old Englishwāh all →

wawwough

Proto-West Germanic*waig all →

wawwough

Proto-Germanic*waigaz all →

wawwough

Proto-Indo-European*weyk- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.