different between awfulness vs woe

English

Etymology

From Middle English aghfulnesse, equivalent to awful +? -ness.

Noun

awfulness (usually uncountable, plural awfulnesses)

1. The state or quality of being awful.
   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, "Characters," [1]

     Out came old Teenie, buzzing mad as a whole nest of wasps. Muttered awfulnesses came from her great padded bonnet.

   • 1961, Peter De Vries, The Blood of the Lamb, Penguin, 1982, Chapter 3, p. 36,

     "Why is the awfulness of families such a popular reason for starting another?"

2. The quality of striking with awe, or with reverence

   Synonyms: dreadfulness, solemnity

   • 1823, Thomas de Quincey, "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" in On Murder, edited by Robert Morrison, Oxford World's Classics, 2006, p. 3,

     […] the knocking at the gate, which succeeds to the murder of Duncan, produced to my feelings an effect for which I could never account: the effect was—that it reflected back upon the murder a peculiar awfulness and a depth of solemnity […]

   the awfulness of this sacred place

3. The state of being struck with awe; a spirit of solemnity; profound reverence.

English

Etymology

From Middle English wo, wei, wa, from Old English w?, w?, from Proto-Germanic *wai (interjection), whence also Dutch wee, German Weh, weh, Danish ve, Yiddish ????? (vey). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wáy (interjection). Compare Latin vae, Albanian vaj, French ouais, Ancient Greek ???? (ouaí), Persian ???? (vây) (Turkish vay, a Persian borrowing), and Armenian ??? (vay).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w??/
• (General American) enPR: w?, IPA^(key): /wo?/
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophone: whoa (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

woe (countable and uncountable, plural woes)

1. Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness.

   Synonyms: grief, sorrow, misery

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost

     Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, / Sad instrument of all our woe, she took.

   • 1717, Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard

     Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose / That well-known name awakens all my woes.

   • October 14 2017, Sandeep Moudgal, The Times of India, Rains devastate families, political parties make beeline to apply balm on open wounds

     The Friday night rains which wrecked families in Kurabarahalli saw all the three major political parties making a beeline to express their condolences, listen to their woes and provide compensation in the hope of garnering their goodwill ahead of the 2018 assembly elections.

2. Calamity, trouble.
3. A curse; a malediction.

   • Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

woe (comparative more woe, superlative most woe)

1. (obsolete) Woeful; sorrowful
   • 1303, Robert of Brunne, Handlyng synne

     hys clerk was wo to do þat dede

   • Wo was the knight and sorroufully he syketh.

Interjection

woe

1. (archaic) An exclamation of grief.

Translations

Anagrams

• owe

Limburgish

Adverb

woe

1. where

Alternative forms

• boe (Maastrichtian)

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch *wuo, from Proto-Germanic *hw?.

Adverb

woe

1. (eastern) Alternative form of hoe

Middle English

Pronoun

woe

1. Alternative form of we (“we”)