# Oi Va Voi [אוי ואבוי]



## bet2173

Greetings, 
I think the exclamation "oi va voi" meaning changes in Hebrew and in Yiddish? Can you please tell me the exact meanings in both of the languages? 

Many thanks, 
Betul


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## anipo

In both languages it means "Oh, my!".  It is used for something that went wrong, is inconvenient, or worse.
He fell ill, oi va voi.  She has married the wrong guy, oi va voi.

Welcome to the forum!


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## tFighterPilot

It's "oi va'avoi". It's in Hebrew, not Yiddish. The word "oi" actually appeared in the bible: אוי לעיר הדמים - "woe to the bloody city" Ezekiel 24. They both appeared together in Proverb 23: למי אוי למי אבוי - "Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow"


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## Aoyama

TFP must be right. Now, the Yiddish expression you may be refering to is "oy vey !", which may come from "oi va'avoi" (I don't know), but probably the Yiddish version's meaning has changed a bit from the Hebrew original, as it is often the case, with probably "oi" becoming "oy" with an echoic meaning rather than the "textual" meaning.


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## arbelyoni

> Now, the Yiddish expression you may be refering to is "oy vey !", which may come from "oi va'avoi" (I don't know)



According to Douglas Harper Oy vey (Yiddish: אוי וויי) is Germanic, meaning "Oh, woe".

Could resemblance be purely coincidental?


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## Aoyama

I gave it some thought in my comment (post #4). I think there is some link though the original Hebrew meaning must have been lost somewhere ...


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## origumi

arbelyoni said:


> According to Douglas Harper Oy vey (Yiddish: אוי וויי) is Germanic, meaning "Oh, woe".
> 
> Could resemblance be purely coincidental?


Aramaic for _oy_ is _vay_, as appears in Onkalos for Numbers במדבר. So _oy vey_ may be a merger of Hebrew/Aramaic and Germanic.


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## BarWerner

I wonder if the addition of the “voi” at the end of “Oi Va” could have come from Jews in the Eastern European countries and originally meant something like “oh oh here comes the voivode’s representative”. Voivode is the title of the prince


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## BarWerner

A Romanian speaking friend wrote this to me: "The word voy in Rumanian means you in plural. La voy means to you all. It could be that during the years and in different languages and sounds the “la voy”  ( to you all ) changed to va voy.
So oi va voy or voi could mean oh to you all."


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## Drink

No, "oy vaavoy" is simply Hebrew, "oy" and "avoy" both mean "woe", and the "va" means "and".


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