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# wah

«wah» in Mova's early modern english dictionary: **Wow! (for the exclamation); war (for the dialect noun)** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### kind

archaic word

### modern equivalent

Wow! (for the exclamation); war (for the dialect noun)

### part of speech

interjection (also a noun in Uncle Remus)

### meaning for a pupil

In Kipling it is an exclamation of surprise; in Uncle Remus it is a dialect spelling of "war". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/W/wah/#m1)

### how it differs from today

Today "wah" is not a normal English word; it is an exclamation in Kipling and a dialect spelling of "war" in Uncle Remus, where "fo' de wah" means "before the war".

### examples

- "Dat ar jug's bin ter wah, mon. (Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/W/wah/#x1)
- In ole times, 'fo' de wah, I ain't heer tell er no seventy-fi'- year-ole nigger grapplin' wid no meezles. (Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/W/wah/#x2)
- “Wah!” said Little Toomai, “thou art a big elephant,” and he wagged his fluffy head, quoting his father. “The Government may pay for elephants, but they belong to us mahouts. (The Jungle Book) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/W/wah/#x3)

### tests

rate: word (≥3 uses, never in EWT or ≥10× EWT, Wiktionary: first sense archaic); corpora 5 (Torah 0, tales 5, Sefer Yetzirah 0); EWT 0; ratio 0.6 (Torah alone 0.0); Wiktionary archaic (first sense)

### In the corpora

- [wa («wah!», high and long) means wow, said just like in English when something is amazing.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/30-street-chatter-wow-really-cool/12/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «wah» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/W/wah/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.