oy vey

interjection

ˈȯi-ˈvā

variants or less commonly oy vay or oy veh

—used to express dismay, frustration, or grief

Mail! Oy veh, I get such mail. Such mail as I never dreamed of before the advent of the Internet.—

Anne Bendheim

Examples of oy vey in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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Instead of crying ‘oy vey,’ Herbert, 24, went to work. —

Jay Paris, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2022

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Yiddish, from oy, interjection expressing surprise or dismay + vey, interjection expressing distress or grief, going back to Middle High German wē, going back to Old High German wah, wē, going back to Germanic *wai (whence Old English wā) — more at woe entry 1

First Known Use

1914, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of oy vey was in 1914

See more words from the same year