As soon as we humans become verbal, we say one of these two words when we experience sudden, sharp pain. (And, yes, even if a string of profanity is uttered after stubbing that toe in the dark, invariably, it is preceded by either Ow or Ouch.)
Are these learned terms, or do they come naturally? Are they said for sudden pain in non-English speaking countries?
If they are words, what do they mean? If they aren’t words, why those sounds?
When I busted my foot (again) the other night, that wasn’t the first word to come out of my mouth, although it was similar.
If I see trouble coming, like that crashing Russian rocket, I tend to hiss a fairly common expletive.
When it hits me, I utter another well known term.
And when I don’t know what shit just fucking hit me, I groan.
I believe “Ouch” actually has a German origin.
I had always assumed that ow or ouch were universal insinctive sounds that we utter. I learned from a spanish-speaking coworker that in spanish they say ai. I’m not sure about the spelling but it is pronounced ah-ee. I was surprised. So my guess (based on just two languages) is that the basic exclamation for pain would be mostly a vowel sound and that the sounds are learned.
I don’t make any vocalized sounds at all when injuried- at most, a small grunt. It always seems strange to me when someone actually goes to the trouble of saying “ouch”. It seems like it would take some effort to actually vocalize an entire word (“ouch” or some expletive), but I guess it becomes automatic for most people, which indicates to me that it’s learned.
Arjuna34
I never say “Ow” or “Ouch”. It’s more of an “Aaaaah”. Just a meaningless burst of breath.
Apparently the French say “aie!” for ouch, “pan-pan” for bang-bang and “hi, hi” for “boo-hoo”. I also know that the sounds that other languages use to imitate animal noises (arf or cockadoodledoo) are very different than the English versions.
And for the record, banging my toe is usually accompanied by a long stream of rather vulgar curse words.
When I’m alone, and I get hurt, I just gasp. No special words. But when someone’s around, and I think they should know that I’ve been injured (especially if it’s their fault), I’ll say “OWW!”
So for me, “oww” is primarily a way to communicate pain to others.
I agree. I have heard people of various nationalities yell in pain. I yell in pain when necessary. At the time of the initial shock, “Aaaaaaah” is what comes out. It is not a word, it is a primal sound.
For the record, in Hebrew we often say “Ow-a” or “Ai-a” in addition to the ever-popular “Ow”. Gaining in popularity over the recent years - obviouly due to running-dog american capitalist intervention - is the word “shit” (pronounced “sheet”).
Thank you.
I always say, Thank you, Mistress, may I have another whack?
Is there some biological purpose or evolutionary reason for hollering when you experience pain? All creatures seem to do it.