Is it similar to wow except for the last w? Often, wow is positive and whoa is negative Wow is a reaction to a big surprise (i am impressed), and whoa means please stop (which maybe due to my surprise.) however, with irony, i can say wow, you made a big mistake, or you are going to wow them with your bright tie, but is that really the best choice for a job interview? Some dictionaries define whoa as stop While some define it as an expression of surprise/astonishment Is there such a word as whoa, where did it originate from and what is its actual meaning?
The oed lists woah as a variant of woa which is a variant of whoa.i don't remember ever seeing the woah spelling (i'd want to pronounce it as two syllables Searching just uk sites, one gets ~170,000 hits for woah and ~255,000 for whoa. I'm having a bad day I have been followed by a velociraptor the entire day How many mirrors did you break/ladders did you walk under on your way to work For black cats, because it is a bit clumsy somehow to say 'did a black cat cross your path?' many brits might make a joke of it with 'how many black cats did you kick on your way.
Or when someone says something smart and you say woah, hold it there, brainiac!. John's awesomesauce weekend in vegas ended prematurely And he prayed with such authority that my prayers felt like weak sauce by comparison How did the words awesomesauce and weak sauce originat. This article in slate states The phrase has stumped scholars and lone ranger fans alike for years, and there appears to be no conclusive evidence as to its true definition or its roots
However, another site (written by a specialist in siouan languages) asserts The word kemosabe is from an algonquian language similar to ojibwe (a complex of related dialects extending from the northern plains. I believe it is primarily an american phrase, used as an exclamation I would never do such a thing What is the origin of that phrase Do we know who betsy is?
He notes the higher verticality of the virgule, which he calls an alternative form of the comma (p.81) It's used as a general separatrix, in dates, and when naming alternatives (either/or) (though this last usage is frowned on by some)
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