A loud exclamation of pain, surprise, or strong emotion; an archaic or dialectal spelling of 'yow' meaning 'you'.
Onomatopoeia (sound-imitation); possibly related to Middle English expressions of pain or emotion. The spelling and usage vary significantly across dialects and time periods.
'Yow' is one of those words that sound like what they mean—it's pure onomatopoeia, which means English speakers have been imitating pain sounds the same way for hundreds of years!
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