whoa - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

• woa (rare)
• woah (often proscribed)
• whoah

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!”).

• (UK) IPA(key): /wəʊ/, /ʍəʊ/
• (US) enPR: wō, hwō, IPA(key): /woʊ/, /ʍoʊ/
• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophone: woe (wine_–_whine merger)

whoa

1. Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.
   • 2007, Ron Liebman, Death by Rodrigo, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 134:
     I can see Mickie getting hot, I'm about to grab his arm, hold him back, say, Whoa, whoa, Mick, not here, it ain't worth it what happened inside just now.
2. An expression of surprise.
   Whoa, are you serious?
   • 1985, Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, Back to the Future, spoken by Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox):
     Whoa. Wait a minute, Doc. Are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?
3. Used as a meaningless filler in song lyrics.
   • 2003, "Weird Al" Yankovic, eBay (song)
     I am the type who is liable to snipe you
     With two seconds left to go, whoa.
   • 2010, Bruce Springsteen, It's a Shame:
     And oh whoa girl, it's a shame.
     Oh whoa girl, it's a doggone shame.

The alternative spelling woah (attested since c. 1856), is often considered nonstandard or informal, but has become increasingly common over the years.[1]

• (antonym(s) of “stop, said to a horse”): giddyup, giddap
• whoa back
• whoa, Nelly

stop, said to a horse

• Arabic: قِف m (qif), قِفِي f (qifī)
• Catalan: xo (ca)
• Chinese:
  Mandarin: 吁 (zh) (yū)
• Esperanto: pru, tpr
• Finnish: ptruu (fi)
• French: ho (fr), holà (fr), stop (fr)
• Galician: xo (gl), ou (gl) (to cattle)
• German: brr (de), oha (de)
• Hindi: वाह (hi) (vāh)
• Hungarian: hó (hu)
• Ingrian: tprr
• Japanese: どう (ja) (dō), どうどう (ja) (dōdō)
• Latin: ōhē
• Malay: hoi
• Norwegian: ptro
• Polish: prr (pl), pru (pl)
• Portuguese: alto! (pt), ou! (pt)
• Russian: тпру (ru) (tpru), пру (pru), стоп (ru) (stop)
• Spanish: so (es), cho (es), to (es)
• Swedish: ptrr

slow down

• German: langsam (de)
• Hindi: वाह (hi) (vāh)
• Malay: hoi
• Polish: hola (pl)
• Spanish: so (es)
• Swedish: sakta i backarna (sv)

expression of surprise

• Finnish: oho (fi)
• French: ouah (fr)
• German: boah (de), boa (de), oha (de), öha (de) (dialectal), eha (dialectal)
• Hindi: वाह (hi) (vāh)
• Malay: hoi
• Māori: hika mā!
• Polish: oho (pl)
• Portuguese: nossa! (pt)
• Russian: ого (ru) (ogo)
• Sicilian: bih, ippì, puì, buì, ivì (scn), zu (scn)
• Spanish: guau (es), híjole (es), hala (es), ala (es), alá (es), hale (es), ale (es), asu (es) (Peru), asu mare (Peru), asu madre (Peru), ño (es) (Florida), bestia (es) (South America)
• Swedish: oj då
• Turkish: oha (tr)
• Ukrainian: ого (oho)

whoa (third-person singular simple present whoas, present participle whoaing, simple past and past participle whoaed)

1. (transitive) To attempt to slow (an animal) by crying "whoa".
   • 1926, Josephine Demott Robinson, The Circus Lady, page 38:
     He was whoaing the horses loudly, and they did seem to be going faster than usual—in fact, they were galloping.

• Whoa! Woah?! Whoah. How an old exclamation became the Internet’s most variously spelled word., Matthew J.X. Malady, Slate

1. ^ Dictionary.com, Hold On, Is It Whoa Or Woah? 1 June 2022. Accessed 29 Apr 2023.

• woah

Borrowed from English whoa.

• IPA(key): [β̞o̞ː]

whoa(ウォー) • (wō)

1. (chiefly in popular music) wow; whoa