Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WOE, n. [Sax. wa; L. væ; Gr. ουαι; W. gwae; G. weh; D. wee; Sw. ve.]

1. Grief; sorrow; misery; a heavy calamity. One woe is past; and behold there come two woes more hereafter. – Rev. ix. They weep each other's woe. – Pope.
2. A curse. Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance, equal to the malignity of such a practice? – South.
3. Woe is used in denunciation, and in exclamations of sorrow. Woe is me; for I am undone. – Isa. vi. This is properly the Saxon dative, “woe is to me.' "Woe worth the day." This is also the dative; woe be to the day; Sax. wurthan, weorthan or wyrthan, to be, to become. Woe is a noun, and if used as an adjective, it is improperly used. “Woe to you that are rich.” “Woe to that man, by whom the offense cometh;” that is, misery, calamity, be or will be to him.