ou

From Hawaiian ʻōʻū.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊ.uː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

ou (plural ous)

1. A probably extinct species of Hawaiian honeycreeper, Psittirostra psittacea.

• Psittirostra psittacea on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Psittirostra psittacea on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Psittirostra psittacea on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

From Afrikaans ou, probably from Dutch ouwe (“old man”).

• (General South African, UK) IPA^(key): /əʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /oʊ/
• Rhymes: -əʊ, -oʊ

ou (plural ous or ouens)

1. (South Africa, colloquial) A fellow, guy, bloke. [from 20th c.]
   • 1962, Jeremy Taylor, “Ag Pleez Deddy”:

     Ag pleez Deddy won't you take us to the wrestling
     We wanna see an ou called Sky High Lee

   • 1975, Sheila Roberts, Outside Life's Feast: Short Stories, Johannesburg: Ad. Donker, →ISBN, page 27:

     I couldn't care that the ous call me rooinek and sometimes whiterat because of my hair and face. At least I am not a hairyback I tell them.

   • 1978, André Brink, Rumours of Rain, Vintage, published 2000, page 292:

     “They're the same good and solid ous they'd been before. Because they managed not to think.”

• UO, U&O

• IPA^(key): /œu̯/

Probably from ouwe, from Dutch oude.

ou (plural ouens, diminutive outjie)

1. an old fellow, guy, bloke

   Synonym: kêrel

From Dutch ouwe.

ou

1. attributive form of oud

ou

1. cloud

Inherited from Classical Latin ōvum, possibly via Vulgar Latin (*)ŏvum. Compare Romanian ou.

ou n (plural oauã, definite singular oulu, definite plural oauãli)

1. egg

• oauã / ou

Verb based on etymology 1.

ou first-singular present indicative (past participle uoatã)

1. alternative form of oauã to lay an egg (like a hen)

• uoari / uoare
• uoat

ou

1. I

• Michael Boutin, A role and reference grammar account of Bonggi adversative constructions, A Mosaic of languages and cultures: studies celebrating the career of Karl J. Franklin (2010)

Inherited from Vulgar Latin (*)ŏvum, from Classical Latin ōvum.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈɔw]

• Audio (Valencia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔw

ou m (plural ous)

1. egg
2. (colloquial) ball, testicle

• “ou”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “ou”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “ou” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “ou” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Onomatopoeic.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈow]

ou

1. (Mallorca, Menorca) whoa! (command to an animal to stop)

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈɔw]

ou

1. (Valencia, Northern Calatan) inflection of oir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

ou

1. (colloquial) oi!, hey!, used for calling out to someone

Inherited from Latin aut.

ou (ORB, broad)

1. or

• ou in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• ou in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

Inherited from Old French ou, from Latin aut.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /u/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -u
• Homophones: août, où, houe, houes, houx

ou

1. or
   • 2011, Christian Depover, Thierry Karsenti, Enseigner avec les technologies: Favoriser les apprentissages, développer des compétences, PUQ, →ISBN:

     La baladodiffusion est ainsi utilisée comme outil à potentiel cognitif, parce qu'elle permet, relativement facilement, de diffuser un contenu audio ou vidéo qui peut, par la suite, être écouté ou vu à tout moment par l'apprenant.

     Therefore, podcasting is used as a tool for cognitive potential, because it allows for the relatively easy distribution of audio or video content, which, as a result, can be listened to or watched at any moment by the learner.

2. either...or

   Ou il est fou ou il est bête.

   Either he's mad or he's stupid.

• ou bien

• où ("where")
• et
• soit

• “ou”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Old Galician-Portuguese ou, from Latin aut.

• IPA^(key): [ow]

ou

1. or

• IPA^(key): [ˈoːw]

ou!

1. whoa! (order for cattle)

   Synonym: xo

2. oh! (vocative)
   • 1775, María Francisca Isla y Losada, Romance:

     Ôu mèu Crego? Seica qués,
     que eu vote a lengoa â pastàr?
     Catao ben, e despois non
     che pese, ò que ágora fás.
     Se contra toda concencia
     pensache de min tàn màl,
     e estou quixòsa, ¿por que
     non me has ti de aloumiñar?

     Oh, my clergyman? Perchance you want
     that I let my tongue free range?
     Watch it carefully, or either you'll later
     regret what you do now.
     If against all conscience
     You thought so badly of me
     And I'm cranky, why
     wouldn't you cherish me?

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “ou”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “ou”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “ou”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “ou”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Possibly from French vous (“you”)

• IPA^(key): /u/

ou (upper case Ou)

1. A letter of the Haitian Creole alphabet, written in the Latin script.

ou (contracted form w)

1. you (singular)

ou

1. yours, your Second person singular possessive, o-type.

• Used after negatives, numbers, locative nouns, certain prepositions, and after nouns preceded by an article or a k-determiner.

• kou

ou

1. (usually impolite) used to get someone's attention; oi, hey

   Ou, mi stai ascoltando? ― Oi, are you listening to me?

Derived from English how.

• IPA^(key): /ou/

ou

1. how

   ou iz it?

   how is it?

   (literally, “How are things?/How are you?”)

   ou kom?

   how come?

   • 2019, “Recognize Patois As An Official Language; Says UWI”, in JamaicanInsider.com‎^[1]:

     Juu tu ou Jamiekan a di wan langwij we bring evri Jamiekan tugeda;

     Due to how Jamaican is the language that brings all Jamaicans together;

ou

1. Rōmaji transcription of おう

Reconstructible to Proto-Galela-Tobelo (Proto-Northeast Halmaheran), likely as *'ohu; compare Galela ohu, Tabaru 'ou, Modole ou. Reconstructible to Proto-North Halmahera, also as *'ohu, if we treat Ternate kohu, Tidore kohu as back-formations of forms like Ternate gohu, which would be *N-prefixed forms of the root.

• IPA^(key): /ˈo.u/

ou

1. (stative) to be unripe

   Synonym: gou

• M. J. van Baarda (1904) Het Lòda'sch, in vergelijking met het Galėla'sch dialect op Halmaheira

ou (ou⁵ / ou⁰, Zhuyin ˙ㄡ)

1. Hanyu Pinyin reading of cmn, 嘔 / 呕

ou

1. nonstandard spelling of ōu
2. nonstandard spelling of óu
3. nonstandard spelling of ǒu
4. nonstandard spelling of òu

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

• u

Probably from French vous; compare Haitian Creole ou.

ou (informal to)

1. you (second-person singular formal personal pronoun)

ou n (plural uauă)

1. alternative form of uou

ou

1. alternative form of yow

From Latin aut.

ou

1. or

• French: ou

Contraction from en+le.

ou

1. within
   • 15th century, Chronique de Charles VII roi de France par Jean Chartier, Tomé II, edited by Vallet de Viriville. Paris: P. Jannet, 1858, page 18.

     Discord et division ou royaulme de Castile.

     Discord and division within the kingdom of Castile

From Old French ou, from Latin aut.

ou

1. (continental, Guernsey) or

• IPA^(key): /u/

From Latin aut.

ou

1. or

• French: ou
• Norman: ou

From Latin ubi.

ou

1. where
   • 11th century, La Vie de Saint Alexis, BNF manuscript 19525

     Dona as povres ou qu'il les pout trouver

     He gave to the poor wherever he could find them

• Middle French: où
  • French: où

From Old Galician-Portuguese ou, from Latin aut.

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ow
• Hyphenation: ou

ou

1. or (connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc. each of which could make a passage true)

   Escolhe a opção um ou a opção dois.

   Choose option one or option two.

2. or (connects two equivalent names)

   Synonym: também

   Mianmar, ou Birmânia, fica na Ásia.

   Myanmar, or Burma, is located in Asia.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:ou.

• Macanese: ó

ou … ou

1. either … or

ou m (plural ous)

1. (logic) inclusive or (connective which yields true when at least one of the predicates is true)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:ou.

• ou exclusivo

Inherited from Classical Latin ōvum, possibly via Vulgar Latin (*)ŏvum.

• IPA^(key): [ow]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

ou n (plural ouă)

1. egg
2. (slang, chiefly in the plural) ball (testicle)

• oua
• oară

• ovu (Nuorese)

Inherited from Classical Latin ōvum, possibly via Vulgar Latin (*)ŏvum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈou/

ou m (plural ovos) (Logudorese, Campidanese)

1. egg

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1132: “l'uovo guasto” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• Wagner, Max Leopold (1960–1964) “óvu”, in Dizionario etimologico sardo, Heidelberg

• oawe

From Old Frisian of, from Proto-West Germanic *ab, from Proto-Germanic *ab. Cognates include West Frisian ôf and German ab.

• IPA^(key): /oːu̯/
• Hyphenation: ou
• Rhymes: -oːu̯

ou (neuter or distal adverb deerou, proximal adverb hierou, interrogative adverb wierou)

1. from

ou (masculine ouen, feminine, plural or definite oue)

1. detached
2. tired
3. distant
4. (games) out

• Marron C. Fort (2015) “ou”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔu/
• Hyphenation: ò‧u

ou m (plural ova)

1. alternative form of ovu

Onomatopoeic.

ou

1. an exclamation to get attention.

   Ou, talè cca

   Hey, look at this!

   Ou! Ascuta!

   Hey! Listen!

2. a protest or reprimand.

   Ou! Tàgghiala!

   Hey! Stop that!

3. an expression of surprise.

   Ou! Quant'avìa ca nun ti vidìa!

   Hey! How long had I not seen you!

4. an informal greeting, similar to ciau.

   Ou! Comu jemu?

   Hey! How's it going?

• (exclamation to get attention): oi, yo; see also Thesaurus:hey
• (expression of surprise): meh, zu, pui, ippi; see also Thesaurus:wow
• (for repetition or explanation): eh, ah
• (informal greeting): ciau; see also Thesaurus:ciau

ou

1. water

• Transnewguinea.org, citing McElhanon and Voorhoeve (1970), Smallhorn (2011) and Wilson (1969)

• au

From Proto-Polynesian *au, from Proto-Oceanic *(i-)au, from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *(i-)aku, from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *(i-)aku, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(i-)aku, from Proto-Austronesian *(i-)aku.

• IPA^(key): /o.u/

ou

1. alternative form of au

ou

1. water

• Transnewguinea.org, citing McElhanon and Voorhoeve (1970), Smallhorn (2011) and Wilson (1969)