oh
pronunciation
How to pronounce oh in British English:
UK [əʊ]
How to pronounce oh in American English:
US [o]
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- Noun:
- a midwestern state in north central United States in the Great Lakes region
Word Origin
- oh
- 1530s, interjection expressing various emotions, a common Indo-European word (Old French ô;, oh; Latin o, oh; Greek o; Old Church Slavonic and Lithuanian o; Gothic, Dutch, German o; Old Irish a; Sanskrit a), but not found in Old English, which translated Latin oh with la or eala. The present tendency is to restrict oh to places where it has a certain independence, & prefer o where it is proclitic or leans forward upon what follows .... [Fowler] Often extended for emphasis, as in Oh, baby, stock saying from c. 1918; oh, boy (1910); oh, yeah (1924). Reduplicated form oh-oh as an expression of alarm or dismay is attested from 1944. Oh-so "so very" (often sarcastic or ironic) is from 1922. Oh yeah? "really? Is that so?" attested from 1930.
Example
- 1. Oh , you don 't know what that is ?
- 2. Oh , and I sleep nine hours every night .
- 3. Oh , how funny-what a sight she saw there !
- 4. Oh look , another story about stealing from an unfortunate little girl related to you !
- 5. And remember the recent books regarding couples that made vows to do it , oh say , 365 nights in a row ?