''Oy vey'' ( yi, אױ װײ) is a
Yiddish phrase expressing dismay or exasperation. Also spelled ''oy vay, oy veh'', or ''oi vey'', and often abbreviated to ''oy'', the expression may be translated as "oh, woe!" or "woe is me!" Its
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
equivalent is ''oy vavoy'' (, ).
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Derivation
According to etymologist Douglas Harper, the phrase is derived from Yiddish and is of Germanic origin. It is cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical e ...
with the German expression ''o weh'', or ''auweh'', combining the German and Dutch exclamation ''au!'' meaning "ouch/oh" and the German word ''weh'', a cognate of the English word ''woe'' (as well as the Dutch ''wee'' meaning pain). The expression is also related to ''oh ve'', an older expression in Danish and Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
, and ''oy wah'', an expression used with a similar meaning in the Montbéliard region in France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
. The Latin equivalent is ''heu, vae!''; a more standard expression would be ''o, me miserum,'' or ''heu, me miserum.''
According to Chabad.org
Chabad.org is the flagship website of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. It was one of the first Jewish internet sites and the first and largest virtual congregation.
History
In 1988, Yosef Yitzchak Kazen, a Chabad rabbi, began creating ...
, an alternative theory for the origin of the Yiddish expression is that "oy" stems from Biblical Hebrew, and that "vey" is its Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...
equivalent.
Significance
The expression is often abbreviated to simply ''oy'', or elongated to ''oy vey iz mir'' ("Oh, woe is me").[Stevens, Payson et al. ''Meshuggenary: Celebrating the World of Yiddish'', p. 34 (Simon and Schuster 2002).] The fuller lament is sometimes found as the more Germanic ''oy vey ist mir''. The main purpose or effect of elongating it is often dramatic, something like a "cosmic ouch".visual anthropologist
Visual anthropology is a subfield of social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media. More recently it has been used by historians of science ...
Penny Wolin
Penny Wolin (born June 5, 1953), also known as Penny Diane Wolin and Penny Wolin-Semple, is an American portrait photographer and a visual anthropologist. She has exhibited solo at the Smithsonian Institution and is the recipient of two grants ...
.[Wolin, Penny. ''The Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora'', p. 196 (Crazy Woman Creek Press 2000).] Its meaning is approximately opposite that of mazel tov.
See also
* List of English words of Yiddish origin
* Oi (interjection), a similar-sounding British English exclamation, said to also have older European origins
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oy Vey
Yiddish words and phrases