Revised as of
12 Jan 2023
Don’t those heterographs (a subset of homophones) frustrate the heck out of you? This one is particularly frustrating [to me] when people misspell one of ’em for a whole new take on what were they thinkin’?
I confess that whao was a whole new “word”, well, acronym really, but it is easy enough to transpose those two last letters. But it’s when whoa turns to woah that I start to consider the intelligence — or the lazy proofreaders — behind that text. Woe are they when it comes to their futures!
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Whao | Whoa | Woah | Woe |
|---|---|---|---|
Western Riding by Patrick Gantz is in the public domain, via PxHere, <“https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1418435>. — It’s a WHAO! thing . . . |
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Whoa Nellie — Careful With the Girls by Frank Kovalchek from Anchorage, Alaska, USA, is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
— Woah no! |
Dramaten Mask by Holger.Ellgaard is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Oh woe . . . woe is me . . . |
| Part of Grammar: | |||
| Acronym | Exclamation | Adjective; Exclamation; Noun
Plural for the noun: woes |
|
| [Swedish] Western Horsemanship All Over
World Homeopathy Awareness Organization |
Used as a command to a horse to make it stop or slow down
|
Adjective: [Obsolete] Woeful
Exclamation: Noun:
Used to lament one’s situation or fate |
|
| Examples: | |||
| There are a number of WHAO! groups all over Sweden.
WHAO believes that “healing through homeopathy is a gentle process and results are often powerful and long-lasting” (World). |
Whoa, that’s huge!
Whoa, did we do that! Whoa, our numbers are really high! Whoa! Stop that! Right now! The stage door man said, “Whoa, whoa, where you going?” You’d better know enough to giddyup or whoa when you’re told. |
Adjective: “Prospero: ‘I am woe for’t, Sir.'” (Shakespeare, p 17). “And looking vp, when as his shield he lakt, / And sword saw not, he wexed wondrous woe” (Spenser, stanza 53). Exclamation: “Miranda: ‘O woe, the day.'” (Shakespeare, p 2). Noun: To add to his woes, customers have been spending less. Woe betide that man, if he hurts my little girl. She just broke up with John, along with her other woes. |
|
| Derivatives: | |||
| Adjective: woebegone, woeful Adverb: woefully Noun: woefulness |
|||
| History of the Word: | |||
| I can’t figure out when Western Horsemanship All Over was established, as I don’t read Swedish.
World Homeopathy Awareness Organization was first established November 21, 2008. |
Late Middle English: variant of ho meaning call for attention. | It was first recorded in Old English (before 900) as wā as a natural exclamation of lament and cognate with the Dutch wee, the German Weh, the Old Norse vei, and the Latin vae. | |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Whao vs Whoa vs Woah vs Woe
Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: woe
The Free Dictionary: woe
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. (First Folio) Isaac Iaggard, and Edward Blount: London, 1623. act 1, scene 2 and act 5, scene 1. <https://amzn.to/3Zyymgo>. Ebook.
Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queen. book 2, canto 8. William Ponsonbie, London: 1590. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.: 2006. <https://amzn.to/3vWCR71>.
Wikipedia: William Ponsonby
World Homeopathy Awareness Organization. n.d. Web. n.d. <http://www.worldhomeopathy.org>.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Mike Berg Performing a Slide Stop by Becky Hanson is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons and Portrait of Senior Man in Charlie Chaplin’s Costume, <https://visualhunt.com/photo/7110/portrait-of-senior-man-in-charlie-chaplins-costume/>, is in the public domain, via VisualHunt.
