Wee vs Woe - What's the difference?

wee | woe |

As adjectives the difference between wee and woe

is that wee is small, little while woe is woeful; sorrowful.

As nouns the difference between wee and woe

is that wee is urine while woe is grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.

As a verb wee

is to urinate.

wee

English

(wikipedia wee)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (15c).

Adjective

(er)

(Scotland, Northern Ireland, North England, NZ) Small, little.

* 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 73:

I had not seen a wee' boy do it like that before. He was ' weer than me and his swimming was just like splashing about.

You looked a little cold so I lit a wee fire.

References

* Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: Tenth Edition (1997)

Etymology 2

Unknown

Noun

(-)

(colloquial, uncountable) urine

(colloquial) An act of urination.

to have a wee

Synonyms

* wee wee * See also * See also

Verb

(colloquial) To urinate.

Synonyms

* See also

Anagrams

* * English terms with homophones English terms with unknown etymologies ----

woe

English

Noun

(en noun)

grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.

* Milton

Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, / Sad instrument of all our woe , she took.

* Alexander Pope

[They] weep each other's woe .

A curse; a malediction.

* South

Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?

Derived terms

* in weal or woe * woeful * woe is me

Adjective

(en adjective)

(obsolete) woeful; sorrowful

* Robert of Brunne

His clerk was woe to do that deed.

* Chaucer

Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed.

* Spenser

And looking up he waxed wondrous woe .