ew

See also: EW, Ew, and -ew

English

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic, ideophonic. Compare oh, ugh.

Alternative forms

• eww, euw, ieuw, ehw

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈiː.uː/, /iːˈjuː/, /iːu̯/, /(j)ɪu̯/, /ɪʊ̯/

• Audio (Midwestern US); “Ooh! Ew!”:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːuː, -uː

Interjection

ew (with as many extra “e”s and/or “w”s as needed for emphasis)

1. Expression of disgust or nausea.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:yuck

   Ew! There’s a fly in my soup.

   Ew! This peanut butter tastes disgusting!

Derived terms

• ewphoria
• ewwie
• ewwy

Related terms

• pew

Translations

expression of disgust or nausea — see also yuck

• Arabic: يَع (yaʕ)

  Gulf Arabic: يع (yaʕ), ويع (wēʕ)

  Hijazi Arabic: يِع (yiʕ)

• Armenian: յախկ (hy) (yaxk)
• Assamese: ছিঃ (sih)
• Breton: ec'h (br)
• Catalan: ecs (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 惡心 / 恶心 (zh) (ěxin), (strong, offensive) 呸 (zh) (pēi), 啐 (zh) (cuì), 哎呀 (zh) (āiyā), 哎 (zh) (āi), 唉 (zh) (ài), 噫 (zh) (yī), 哎喲 / 哎哟 (zh) (āiyōu), 唉唷 (āiyō)

• Czech: fuj (cs)
• Danish: uf, fy, øv
• Dutch: bah (nl)
• Esperanto: aĉ (eo)
• Finnish: hyi (fi), yök (fi), yäk (fi), yh (fi)
• French: beurk (fr)
• German: igitt (de), pfui (de)
• Greek: μπλιάχ (bliách)

  Ancient Greek: ψό (psó)

• Hebrew: איכס (he) (ikhs), איכסה (he) (íkhsa), פוי (he) (fuy), פויה (he) (fuya)
• Hindi: छी (hi) (chī)
• Hungarian: fúj (hu)
• Icelandic: oj (is)
• Italian: puah (it)
• Japanese: げ (ja) (ge), ゲ (ja) (ge), げっ (ja) (ge'), ゲッ (ge')
• Lithuanian: fu, pfui
• Navajo: ih
• Norwegian: æsj (no), fysj
• Persian: ایش (fa) (išš), پیف (fa) (pif)
• Polish: fuj (pl), ble (pl)
• Portuguese: credo (pt), eca (pt), que nojo!
• Russian: фу (ru) (fu), тьфу (ru) (tʹfu), фе (ru) (fe), фи (ru) (fi) (aristocratic), бе (ru) (be), бр-р (ru) (br-r), буэ́ (ru) (bué)
• Serbo-Croatian: fuj (sh), bljak
• Spanish: guácala (es), puaj (es), puaf, iw, huácala (es), fuchi (es), fúchila, aj (es), fo (es), fo mierda, guácale (Latin America), íu
• Swedish: usch (sv), fy (sv), uäk, blä (sv)
• Turkish: ıy (tr)
• Ukrainian: фу (fu)
• Urdu: چھی (chī)
• Vietnamese: êu (vi)
• Welsh: ych a fi

Verb

ew (third-person singular simple present ews, present participle ewwing, simple past and past participle ewwed)

1. (ambitransitive, colloquial, rare) To express disgust (at someone or something) by saying ew.
   • 2012, Simon Dodd, Death by Muttonbird: A Lord Howe Island Murder Mystery, Sydney, N.S.W.: DBMB Publishing, →ISBN, page 201:

     “Brad went into a seething rage, as you do,” said Jack “and followed Harvey out of the restaurant, down the road and …” / “… Killed him with a muttonbird,” added Matahina / “A brick, then a muttonbird,” corrected Jack, to her horror. / “Ew!” she ewwed.

   • 2014, Babe Walker, “Get Off My Dick”, in Psychos (A White Girl Problems Book; 2), New York, N.Y.: Gallery Books, →ISBN, page 239:

     “Yes. But why did she target me? I don’t understand.” / “I think it’s kind of fun.” Gen smiled, pulling out her own pack of Marlboros and lighting one. / “Ew, you would think it’s fun. Try having a stalker.” / “Don’t ew me right now, Babe. Honestly.”

   • 2022, Meg Elison, “Drone Pirates of Silicon Valley”, in Jonathan Strahan, editor, Tomorrow's Parties: Life in the Anthropocene (Twelve Tomorrows), Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, →ISBN, page 22:

     Jayden […] showed them a large cache of vintage muscleman magazines. “Look at this. Look how hot.” […] “I’m gonna hang them up all over my room. My mom says it’s OK as long as they’re not showing meat.” / “Ew,” Ava said. / “I don’t ew the shit you like,” Jayden retorted. / “You ew girls all the time,” Ava said dismissively. “And I just meant ew to calling it ‘meat.’”

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

ew

1. Obsolete spelling of yew.

Further reading

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Ew”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume III (D–E), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 356, column 1.

Anagrams

• WE, w/e, we

Middle English

Alternative forms

• u, iw, iv, eev, hw, ewe

Etymology

From Old English īw, ēow, from Proto-West Germanic *īhu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iu̯/, /jiu̯/

Noun

ew

1. yew (Taxus baccata)
2. yew wood

Descendants

• English: yew
• Scots: yew, ewe
• Yola: yew

References

• “eu, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 10 April 2018.

Mokilese

Mokilese numbers ^(edit)

		10
		1	2  →	10  →
General: ew     Animate: emen     Long objects: apas     Pieces: ekij     Serial counting number: oahd     General ordinal: keiow     Animate ordinal: keiow     Long objects ordinal: keiow     Pieces ordinal: keiow

Etymology

e- (“one”) +‎ -w (general numeral classifier)

Numeral

ew

1. the numeral one

Usage notes

Ew is the general form of the numeral one, used for general counting and to describe the number of inanimate objects that are not considered long or pieces of other nouns.

Northern Kurdish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æw/

Pronoun

Central Kurdish	ئەو (ew)
Southern Kurdish	ئەۊ (eẅ)

ew (he) (she)

Central Kurdish	ئەوان (ewan)
Southern Kurdish	ئەوان (ewan)

ew (they)

ew (masculine oblique singular wî, feminine oblique singular wê, oblique plural wan)

1. he, she, it, they

See also

Kurmanji Kurdish personal pronouns

	singular	plural
1st person	ez (æz)	em (æm)
2nd person	tu (tu)	hûn (huːn)
3rd person	ew (æw)	ew (æw)

Waigali

Waigali cardinal numbers

<  0	1	2  >
Cardinal : ew

Etymology

From Proto-Nuristani *eka, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Háykas, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óykos.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈew/

Numeral

ew (Nisheigram)

1. one