ho

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ho"

Languages (39)

Translingual • English

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Page categories

Translingual

Etymology

Abbreviation of English Hiri Motu.

Symbol

ho

1. (international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Hiri Motu.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Hiri Motu terms

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /həʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /hoʊ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophones: hoe, hoh

Etymology 1

From Middle English ho, hoo (interjection), probably from Old Norse hó! (interjection, also, a shepherd's call). Compare Dutch ho, German ho, Old French ho! (“hold!, halt!”).

Interjection

ho

1. (nautical) Used to attract attention to something sighted, usually by lookouts.

   Sail ho! ― Another boat is visible!

   Land ho! ― Land is visible!

   Man ho! ― A town is visible!

2. halloo; hey; a call to excite attention, or to give notice of approach.
   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     What noise there, ho?

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi]:

     Ho! who's within?

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     O ho, O ho! Would't had been done!

   • 1597, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in Virgidemiarum, Sixe Bookes. First Three Bookes, of Tooth-lesse Satyrs. […], London: […] Thomas Creede, for Robert Dexter, →OCLC:

     Ho! all ye females that would live unshent, / Fly from the reach of Cyned's regiment.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbj&oslash￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 93:

     "That was a shot! But the captain will be glad! Ho, ho, here we are!" he cried till it was re-echoed from all the hills around.

   • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 11:

     "So I catch you. You stealer! Ho! Ho!"

   • 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 24:

     "How such swooning daughters can do it, constantly fainting and having hysterics, is a mystery to me," said Muriel Jane. "Ho, they're a pretty sly lot," said Silvander Dan.

3. (rare) Said accompanying a vigorous attack.
   • 1900, Ching Foo, the Yellow Dwarf; Or the Bradys and the Opium Smokers, page 2:

     "I'll hit you again, you thief !” he cried angrily, shaking “Ho-ho-ho!” he croaked.

   • 1955, John Sack, From Here to Shimbashi - Volume 637, page 172:

     It was quite an astonishing show. Colonel Paul Malone of the U.S. Army kept thwacking away with all his might and main, shouting "Ho!"

   • 1999, Mona the Vampire, "Attack of the Living Scarecrow" (season 1, episode 1a):

     Mona: Hee! Ha! Ho! Ha! The brain buffet is closed, buddy! Take that! And this!

   • 2008, Daniel Hellmund, The Answer for Laria, page 93:

     Ho! Take that vile Foresythe!” He snapped his wrist, clicking the stick against the bowed sides of a barrel.

Derived terms

• ho there
• soho

Translations

nautical: attention grabber

Finnish: ohoi (fi) Russian: эй (ru) (ej) Swedish: ohoj (sv), åhoj (sv) Ukrainian: гей (uk) (hej)

hey

Latin: heus Russian: гей (ru) (gej), эгей (ru) (egej), (antiquated, poetic) гой (ru) (goj) (with a second person pronoun) Spanish: ey (es) Ukrainian: гей! (uk) (hej!), аго́в! (uk) (ahóv!)

Noun

ho

1. A stop; a halt; a moderation of pace.
   • 1604, Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore:

     There is no ho with them.

References

• 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology, Oxford University Press, →ISBN

Etymology 2

Pronunciation spelling of whore in non-rhotic accents with the dough–door merger, such as some varieties of African American Vernacular English; compare mo (“more”), fo' (“for; four”). The noun first appears c. 1964, whereas the verb first appears c. 1972.

Alternative forms

• hoe, 'ho

Noun

ho (plural hos or hoes or heaux)

2. (slang, derogatory) A whore; a sexually promiscuous woman; in general use as a highly offensive term of abuse for a woman with connotations of loose sexuality.

   Bros before hoes!

   • 2001, “Psycho”, in Toxicity, performed by Serj Tankian with System of a Down:

     So you want to see the show? You really don't have to be a ho.

   • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 204:

     They was saying the jawn freaked out and called the cops cause all her sorority sistahs started ragging on her and calling her a stank ho for fucking half the basketball team.

   • 2010, Dennis Shields, God Went Fishing‎, page 69:

     "You looking for one of my ho's?" the diminutive man asked Sigmund.
     "A hoe?" Sigmund asked, wondering why the little man wished to sell him farming equipment in the city.
     "You know, a ho. A tute. A honey, A righteous bit of poontang, my brother," he said.
     "I don't follow," Sigmund said.
     "Indubitably, I means a ho, a whore. I can tell you is a player. You want a whore?" he asked.

3. (slang, offensive) A woman in general; a bitch.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:promiscuous woman

Derived terms

• hoeish
• hoism
• ho stroll
• ho tag
• thot
• video ho

Translations

whore

Afrikaans: please add this translation if you can Albanian: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can Catalan: puta (ca), prostituta (ca) Czech: kurva (cs) f, děvka (cs) f Danish: hore c Dutch: hoer (nl) Esperanto: putino (eo) Finnish: horo (fi) French: pute (fr) f German: Hure (de) f Hebrew: please add this translation if you can Hindi: please add this translation if you can Hungarian: kurva (hu), ribanc (hu) Icelandic: hóra (is) f Indonesian: please add this translation if you can Italian: please add this translation if you can Japanese: please add this translation if you can Kazakh: please add this translation if you can Korean: 똥치 (ttongchi) Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can Macedonian: please add this translation if you can Malay: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: hore (no) f Polish: kurwa (pl) f Portuguese: puta (pt), prostituta (pt), vadia (pt) Romanian: curvă (ro) f, târfă (ro) f, bagaboantă Russian: шлю́ха (ru) f (šljúxa) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: please add this translation if you can Roman: please add this translation if you can Slovak: kurva f Slovene: please add this translation if you can Spanish: puta (es) f, prostituta (es) f Swedish: hora (sv) c Tagalog: please add this translation if you can Turkish: orospu (tr), fahişe (tr) Ukrainian: ку́рва (uk) (kúrva) Vietnamese: đĩ (vi), phò (vi)

woman

Afrikaans: please add this translation if you can Albanian: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: пичка (bg) f (pička) Catalan: please add this translation if you can Czech: kunda (cs) Danish: please add this translation if you can Dutch: please add this translation if you can Finnish: muija (fi), ämmä (fi) French: please add this translation if you can German: please add this translation if you can Greek: please add this translation if you can Hebrew: please add this translation if you can Hindi: please add this translation if you can Hungarian: pina (hu) Icelandic: please add this translation if you can Indonesian: please add this translation if you can Italian: fica (it) f Japanese: please add this translation if you can Kazakh: please add this translation if you can Korean: please add this translation if you can Latvian: please add this translation if you can Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can Macedonian: please add this translation if you can Malay: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: fitte (no) c Polish: dupa (pl) f Portuguese: gaja (pt), puta (pt) (more vulgar and offensive) Romanian: pizdă (ro) f Russian: пизда́ (ru) f (pizdá) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: пичка f Roman: pička (sh) f Slovak: kunda Slovene: please add this translation if you can Spanish: please add this translation if you can Swedish: brutta (sv) c Tagalog: please add this translation if you can Turkish: please add this translation if you can Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can Vietnamese: đĩ (vi)

Verb

ho (third-person singular simple present hoes, present participle hoeing, simple past and past participle hoed)

1. (transitive, intransitive, slang, vulgar) To act as a ho, to prostitute.
   • 2003 November 18, Greywolf Johnson, “Do you know any of these? <g>”, in alt.strange.days‎ (Usenet):

     She holds down a decent job during the day, but is secretly hoeing around with at least 5 different trifling men.

Etymology 3

From Middle English howe, houwe, hoȝe, from Old English hogu and hoga, from Proto-Germanic *hugô, *hugiz, *huguz (“mind, thought, understanding”), akin to Old High German hugu, hugi (Middle High German hüge), Old Saxon hugi (Middle Dutch höghe, Dutch heug), Old Norse hugr, Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌲𐍃 (hugs).

Alternative forms

• hoe

Noun

ho (plural hos)

1. (obsolete) Care, anxiety, trouble, sorrow.
   • 1567, George Turberville, “A. Sani di Cure Aunsweres”, in Heroycall Epistles of Ovid, 155v:

     Though there bee A thousand cares that heape my hoe.

   • 1798, Charlotte Turner Smith, The Young Philosopher, I. 195:

     Him that..this gentlewoman is in such a hoe about.

   • 1869-70, William Barnes, “The Widow’s House”, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect‎:

     But by day to the zun they must rise
     To their true lives o' tweil an' ov ho.

   • 1875, William Douglas Parish, A Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect‎ (at cited word):

     I doänt see as you've any call to putt yourself in no such terrible gurt hoe over it.

Etymology 4

From Middle English howen, hoȝen, hogien, from Old English hogian, hugian, from Proto-Germanic *hugjaną. Cognate with Middle Scots huik, Old High German hucken, Old Saxon huggjan, Dutch heugen, Old Norse hyggja, Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hugjan).

Alternative forms

• hoe

Verb

ho

1. (obsolete) To care, be anxious, to long.
   • 1787, F. Grose, Provinc. Gloss (at cited word):

     To ho for anything, to long for any thing. Berks.

   • 1847-78, J. O. Halliwell, Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words:

     Ho...to long for anything; to be careful and anxious. West.

   • 1869-70, William Barnes, The Bells of Alderburnham, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect:

     But still 'tis happiness to know That there's a God above us; An' he, by day an' night do ho Vor all ov us an' love us.

   • 1874, T. Hardy, Far from Madding Crowd, II. xxiii. 289:

     To ho and hanker after thik woman.

   • 1888, B. Lowsley, Gloss. Berks. Words & Phrases:

     Ho, to long for; to care greatly for.

Anagrams

• OH, oh, Oh, -oh, Oh.

Asturian

Alternative forms

• hom
• hon

Etymology

Clipping of home.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈo/ [ˈo]
• Rhymes: -o
• Syllabification: ho

Interjection

ho

1. friendly interjection used at the end of a phrase when speaking to someone, "bro", "man"

   ¿Sabíes eso, ho?

   Did you know that, man?

   Vamos pa mio casa, ho

   Let's go to my place, man

2. used closing the sentence to bolster the attention of the listener; emphatic

   ¡Apara yá, ho!

   Stop (it) already, man!

Usage notes

• This interjection is used very frequently in Asturian, more than English man or bro, as such when translating to English many instances of "ho" would not be translated.
• Although "ho" was originally the adult male form, the children equivalent being nin, "ho" is now used extensively for either, without taking into account the receptor's gender or age, while "nin" has largely retained its connotations.
• "Ho" is usually only used at the end of phrases, "home" is used at the beginning.

Eso ye lo qu'hai de facer, ho ― That's what you gotta do, man

Home, eso ye lo qu'hai de facer ― Man, that's what you gotta do

Breton

Determiner

ho (requires hard mutation)

1. your pl

   ho preudeur ― your brothers

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin hoc. Compare Occitan o and ac.

Pronunciation

• (Eastern) IPA^(key): /u/, /əw/
• (Western) IPA^(key): /u/, /ew/, /o/
• (Valencia) IPA^(key): /ew/, /u/, /o/

Pronoun

ho (enclitic and proclitic)

1. it (direct object); replaces the demonstrative pronouns açò, això and allò
2. replaces an independent clause (one which could grammatically form a sentence on its own)
3. replaces an adjective or an indefinite noun which serves as the predicate of ésser, esdevenir, estar or semblar

Usage notes

• Ho cannot be used with either en or hi.
• ho is the reinforced (reforçada) form of the pronoun. It is used before verbs.

  Ho sabem. ― We know that.

• -ho is the full (plena) form of the pronoun. It is normally used after verbs.

  Puc fer-ho. ― I can do it.

  Deixa-ho. ― Leave it.

Declension

Catalan personal pronouns and clitics

			strong/subject	weak (direct object)		weak (indirect object)		possessive
				proclitic	enclitic	proclitic	enclitic
singular	1st person	standard	jo, mi3	em, m’	-me, ’m	em, m’	-me, ’m	meu
		majestic1	nós	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
	2nd person	standard	tu	et, t’	-te, ’t	et, t’	-te, ’t	teu
		formal1	vós	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
		very formal2	vostè	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
	3rd person	m	ell	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
		f	ella	la, l’4	-la	li	-li	seu
		n		ho	-ho	li	-li	seu
plural
	1st person		nosaltres	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
	2nd person	standard	vosaltres	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
		formal2	vostès	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
	3rd person	m	ells	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
		f	elles	les	-les	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person reflexive			si	es, s’	-se, ’s	es, s’	-se, ’s	seu
adverbial	ablative/genitive			en, n’	-ne, ’n
	locative			hi	-hi

¹ Behaves grammatically as plural.   ² Behaves grammatically as third person.
³ Only as object of a preposition.   ⁴ Not before unstressed (h)i-, (h)u-.

Derived terms

proclictic

• m'ho
• s'ho
• t'ho

enclitic

• 'ls-ho
• 'ns-ho
• -ens-ho
• -li-ho
• -los-ho
• -m'ho
• -s'ho
• -t'ho
• -us-ho
• -vos-ho

Chickasaw

Pronoun

ho

1. they

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɦo]

• Audio:

  (file)

Pronoun

ho m or n

1. accusative of on

   Synonym: jej

2. accusative of ono

Danish

Interjection

ho

1. (onomatopoeia) Signifies a hearty laugh.

See also

• ha, he, hi, hæ, hø, hår

Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ho/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o
• Hyphenation: ho

Noun

ho (accusative singular ho-on, plural ho-oj, accusative plural ho-ojn)

2. The name of the Latin-script letter H/h.

See also

• (Latin-script letter names) litero; a, bo, co, ĉo, do, e, fo, go, ĝo, ho, ĥo, i, jo, ĵo, ko, lo, mo, no, o, po, ro, so, ŝo, to, u, ŭo, vo, zo

Interjection

ho

2. oh

See also

• hu