yow

See also: Yow and -yow

English

Etymology 1

Noun

yow (plural yows)

1. Alternative form of yowe.

Etymology 2

Interjection

yow

1. Expression of pain; ouch.

   Yow! I dropped it on my toe!

2. Expression of humorous surprise or emphasis.

   You've been divorced four times? Yow!

Synonyms

• ouch, youch

Anagrams

• Wyo.

Huave

Noun

yow

1. water

Derived terms

• awiich yow
• ayar yow
• lamiyow
• landeow yow
• miyow
• neyow
• oniiüg yow
• üüch yow

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)

1. 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)

2. (formal) second-person singular object pronoun: you (singular).

Descendants

• English: you
• Scots: you

See also

Middle English personal pronouns

			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
	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
		bor.	þei	þem, þeim		þeir	þeir þeires, þeiren

¹ Used preconsonantally or before h.
² Early or dialectal.
³ Dual 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.
⁴ Sometimes used as a formal 2nd person singular.

Scots

Etymology

Uncertain; most likely from Old English ēow.

Pronoun

yow (personal, emphatic)

1. (Southern Scots) you

See also

• ee

Whitesands

Noun

yow

1. 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

1. you (second-person singular subject pronoun)

See also

Wolof personal pronouns

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

Yapese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jɔw/

Pronoun

yow

1. Third-person dual pronoun; they two

See also

Yapese personal pronouns

		singular	dual	plural
first person	exclusive	gaeg	gamow	gamaed
	inclusive	—	gadow	gadaed
second person		guur	gimeew	gimeed
third person		qiir	yow	yaed
partitive		—	bagyow	bagyaed

Partitive pronouns are used in expressions such as one of them two (dual) or one of them (plural).

References

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