yow

See also: Yow and -yow

English

Etymology 1

Noun

yow (plural yows)

Alternative form of yowe

Etymology 2

Interjection

yow

Expression of pain; ouch.
Yow! I dropped it on my toe!
Expression of humorous surprise or emphasis.
You've been divorced four times? Yow!

Synonyms

ouch, youch

Anagrams

Wyo.

Huave

Noun

yow

water

Derived terms

References

Stairs Kreger, Glenn Albert, Scharfe de Stairs, Emily Florence, Olvaries Oviedo, Proceso, Ponce Villanueva, Tereso, Comonfort Llave, Lorenzo (1981) Diccionario huave de San Mateo del Mar (Serie de vocabularios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves”; 24)‎^[1] (in Spanish), México, D.F.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, pages 184–185

Middle English

Alternative forms

yowe, you, youe, yo, yoe, yogh, yaw, yew, yhu, yu, yw, yhow, ȝou, ȝow, ȝouȝ, ȝowȝ, ȝo, ȝowe, ȝu, ȝw, ȝue, ȝiow, ȝeu, ȝew, ȝewe, ȝaw, ȝhow, ȝhowe, ȝiu, ȝeow, ȝehw, ȝuw, gow, gu, giu, geu, geau, eou, eow, eo, eowe, eu, euwȝ, ou, ow, æu, owe, hou, heou, heu

Etymology

From Old English ēow, from Proto-West Germanic *iwwiz, from Proto-Germanic *izwiz. Initial /j/ is by analogy with ye.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /juː/, /jiu̯/
(Early Middle English) IPA^(key): /uː/, /iu̯/
(unstressed) IPA^(key): /ju/

Pronoun

yow (nominative ye)

Second-person plural object pronoun: you (plural).
- c. 1395, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Clerk's Tale", Canterbury Tales, Ellesmere manuscript (c. 1410):
  certes lord / so wel vs liketh yow / And al youre werk / and euere han doon / þat we / Ne koude nat vs self deuysen how / We myghte lyuen / in moore felicitee [...].
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
(formal) second-person singular object pronoun: you (singular).

Descendants

English: you
Scots: you

			nominative	accusative	dative	genitive	possessive
singular	1st-person		I, ich, ik	me		min mi¹	min
	2nd-person		þou	þe		þin þi¹	þin
	3rd-person	m	he	him hine²	him	his	his hisen
		f	sche, heo	hire heo	hire		hire hires, hiren
		n	hit		hit him²	his, hit	—
dual³	1st-person		wit	unk		unker
dual³	2nd-person		ȝit	inc		inker
plural	1st-person		we	us, ous		oure	oure oures, ouren
	2nd-person⁴		ye	yow		your	your youres, youren
	3rd-person	inh.	he	hem he²	hem	here	here heres, heren
	3rd-person	bor.	þei	þem, þeim		þeir	þeir þeires, þeiren

¹Used preconsonantally or before h.
²Early or dialectal.
³Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third-person dual forms in Middle English.
⁴Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

References

“you, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 18 May 2018.

Scots

Etymology

Uncertain; most likely from Old English ēow.

Pronoun

yow (personal, emphatic)

(Southern Scots) you

Whitesands

Noun

yow

turtle

References

Jeremy Hammond, The Grammar of Nouns and Verbs in Whitesands, an Oceanic Language of Southern Vanuatu (2009), p. 81

Wolof

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)

Pronoun

yow

you (second-person singular subject pronoun)

Yapese

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /jɔw/

Pronoun

yow

Third-person dual pronoun; they two

References

Jensen, John Thayer (1977) Yapese Reference Grammar, Honolulu: The University press of Hawaii, pages 132-135

Other expressions
		Singular	Dual	Plural
First*	inclusive		gadow	gadaed
First*	exclusive	gaeg	gamow	gamaed
Second		guur	gimeew	gimeed
Third		qiir	yow	yaed
Partitive**			bagyow	bagyaed
* The first person can be inclusive (I/we and you) or exclusive (I/we and not you). This differentiation is meaningful only in the dual and in the plural. ** Partitive pronouns are used in expressions such as one of them two (dual) or one of them (plural).

	singular subject	plural subject	singular object	plural object
1st person	man	nun	ma	nu
2nd person	yow	yeen	la	leen
3rd person	moom	ñoom	ko	leen