köken: From Middle High German wē, from Old High German wē, from Proto-West Germanic *wai. Compare Latin vae, Dutch wee, English woe, Danish ve, Swedish ve, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹 (wai).
köken: PIE word *wáy From Proto-Iranian *wáy, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *wáy, eventually from Proto-Indo-European *wáy. Cognate with Latin vae, English woe. Similar words also exist in Semitic, compare Aramaic וָי (wāy), Arabic وَيْلٌ (waylun).
köken: From Proto-Finnic *voi (compare Estonian või), from Proto-Finno-Ugric *waje (compare Northern Sami vuodja, Erzya ой (oj), Western Mari ӱ (ü), Udmurt вӧй (vöj), Hungarian vaj).
köken: Probably an expressive creation. Similar words are found in many other languages, especially Indo-European. Compare Latin vae, Albanian vaj, Italian guai, Sicilian vai, Spanish ay, Ancient Greek οὐαί (ouaí), English woe.
köken: Borrowed from German weh, from Proto-Germanic *wai, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wáy (“oh!; woe!; alas!”). Compare Yiddish וויי (vey), Dutch wee, Latin vae, Ancient Greek οὐαί (ouaí), Spanish guay, Italian guai, dialectal French vé, Welsh gwae, Latvian vai, Persian وای (vây), Arabic وَيْل (wayl).