οὐαί

Forms

οὐαί (ouaí), interjection; also used as an indeclinable noun, feminine in Revelation.^[2]

Etymology

It is an expressive cry.^[1] It is traditionally compared with Latin vae, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹 (wai) and other cries of woe that point to Proto-Indo-European *wáy, but it cannot be derived from that by the regular sound laws.^[1][3] Pokorny counts it among the new creations of the Alexandrian period, beside older ὀά (oá).^[3] BDAG compares the Hebrew cries of woe it translates in the Septuagint, and Babiniotis calls it a Semitic loan.^[2][4] Lowe, however, argued against its being a transcription of the Hebrew word.^[2][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the Septuagint, from Numbers on, as a cry of pain, grief or horror, with the dative of the person pitied or threatened (“woe to you”).^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

It is a word of Jewish and Christian Greek: the Septuagint uses it 66 times, and the New Testament for Jesus' woes on the cities and on the scribes and Pharisees, and for the woes of Revelation, where it is also a noun, “a woe, a calamity”.^[6][2][8] It is rare outside these texts, but Epictetus and a mime from Oxyrhynchus have οὐαί μοι “woe is me”.^[7][2]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept it as a cry of pain, fear or threat.^[9] Modern Greek ουαί (ué) is a learned word, used in set phrases such as “woe to the vanquished”.^[10]

Timeline

• 3rd century BC – The Septuagint has it in Numbers.^[5][7]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it in Jesus' woes and as a noun in Revelation.^[2][8]
• 2nd century AD – Epictetus, as reported by Arrian, uses οὐαί μοι.^[7][2][11]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses it as a cry of distress or threat.^[9]
• Modern Greek – ουαί (ué) survives as a learned interjection.^[10][4]

Meanings

Interjection

1. Woe!, alas!, a cry of pain, grief or anger; with the dative “woe to …”, also with the nominative, vocative or accusative.^[7][6][2]

Noun

1. (New Testament) A woe, a calamity; feminine and indeclinable.^[2][12]

Related words

• Latin vae

Usage notes

Doubled and tripled forms are used for emphasis (οὐαὶ οὐαί).^[6][7] Hesychius has a separate gloss οὐαί “tribes”, said to be Cypriot.^[7][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
3. ^ a b Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
4. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
7. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company
9. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
13. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)