different between woe vs remorse

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”)

English

Alternative forms

• remorce (obsolete)

Etymology

First attested circa 14th century as Middle English remors, from Old French remors, from Medieval Latin remorsum, from Latin remorde? (“I torment, I vex”, literally “I bite back”), from re- +? morde? (“I bite”). More at remord.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: r?-môrs?, IPA^(key): /???m??(?)s/
• (US) enPR: r?-môrs?, IPA^(key): /???m??s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s
• Hyphenation: re?morse

Noun

remorse (countable and uncountable, plural remorses)

1. A feeling of regret or sadness for doing wrong or sinning.
   • 1897, Oscar Wilde, "De Profundis,"

     Failure, disgrace, poverty, sorrow, despair, suffering, tears even, the broken words that come from lips in pain, remorse that makes one walk on thorns, conscience that condemns . . . —all these were things of which I was afraid.

2. (obsolete) Sorrow; pity; compassion.
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, King John, act 4, scene 3,

     This is the bloodiest shame,

     The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke,

     That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage

     Presented to the tears of soft remorse.

Synonyms

• (regret or sadness for doing wrong): agenbite, compunction, contrition, penitence, repentance, rue, self-reproach
• See also Thesaurus:remorse

Hypernyms

• regret, sadness

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• apology

Anagrams

• Roemers, roemers

Latin

Participle

remorse

1. vocative masculine singular of remorsus