owe

From Middle English owen, from Old English āgan, from Proto-West Germanic *aigan (“to own”), from Proto-Germanic *aiganą, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂óyḱe (“to possess, own”), reduplicated stative of *h₂eyḱ- (“to own”). See also own, ought.

Cognate with Sanskrit ईश्वर (īśvará, “liable, exposed to”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊ/
• (US) enPR: ō, IPA^(key): /oʊ/

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• Homophones: o, oh
• Rhymes: -əʊ

owe (third-person singular simple present owes, present participle owing, simple past owed or (archaic) ought, past participle owed or (archaic) own)

1. (ditransitive) To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.

   I owe Kevin five bucks which he lent to me last week.

   This time I'll cover for you, but now you owe me a favour.

   • 1593, anonymous, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:

     VVe owe God a death, and we can but die:

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

     […] To you, Antonio,
     I owe the most, in money and in love;
     And from your love I have a warranty
     To unburden all my plots and purposes
     How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

   • 1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 7, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], OCLC 4389957:

     He inherited a fair fortune from his uncle, but owed it all before he came into it, and spent it twice over immediately afterwards.

2. (intransitive) To have debt; to be in debt.
3. (transitive) To have as a cause; used with to.

   'The record owes its success to the outstanding guitar solos.

• The original past tense form was ought, which during Middle English began to be used with indefinite signification and has become a distinct verb. The original past participle survives in the adjective own.

• woe

owe

1. water

• Terry Crowley et al, The Avava Language of Central Malakula (Vanuatu) (2006)

• owi, noi

Cognate with German ab.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔːβɛ/

owe

1. (East-Central Bavarian) down (direction away from the speaker)

   Antonym: auffe

Bavarian adverbs of direction come in pairs: endings in -i or -e denote direction away from the speaker (akin to German hin), and endings in -a denote direction towards the speaker (akin to German her).

• owa

owe

1. Alternative form of yow

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔ.vɛ/

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• Rhymes: -ɔvɛ
• Syllabification: o‧we

owe

1. nonvirile nominative/accusative/vocative plural of ów

• òghe

Folk etymology explains that it comes from ò- (“nominalizing prefix”) +‎ wé (“to wrap, to twist”), literally “That which wraps something around something else (another meaning)”. Compare with possibly related terms, ìwé, ewé, fi wé, and àlọ́

• IPA^(key): /ò.wē/

òwe

1. proverb, adage, saying