Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Wow

"Wow!" That interjection  sounds so modern, don't you think? I'll admit, it gave me pause when one of my characters insisted on using it. So, I decided I'd better check on when (and how) it was first used.
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Well, wow!

Was I surprised!

According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition, the exclamation wow, when used to express strong feeling. such as pleasure or surprise, dates from (hold onto your hat) 1513! So, people have been wow-ing in surprise for a loooooong time.

Now, if you see it used as a noun to mean "a striking success or a "hit," that dates from 1920. To "wow" someone (to excite to enthusiastic admiration of approval) came into use in 1924.

The Grammarphobia Blog also had some interesting things to say about this word in The astonishing life of “Wow!” If you are curious about the origin of this word (as I am), the post notes:

Why “wow”? The OED doesn’t exactly say, but it notes the similarity with the interjection “vow” (used in Scottish English to emphasize a statement). Oxford says this use of  “vow” is probably a clipped version of “I vow.”

Soooo my 19th-century characters can certainly say, "Wow!" but they better not say, "That performance was a wow!" or "She really wowed me with her rendition of the aria 'Dove Sono' from The Marriage of Figaro." (See below.)


The curtains in this performance really wowed me too!