owe

From Middle English owen, from Old English āgan, from Proto-Germanic *aiganą, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂óyḱe (“to possess, own”), reduplicated stative of *h₂eyḱ- (“to own”). See also own, ought.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊ/
• (US) enPR: ō, IPA^(key): /oʊ/

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• Homophones: o, oh
• Rhymes: -əʊ

owe (third-person singular simple present owes, present participle owing, simple past owed or (archaic) ought, past participle owed or (archaic) own)

1. (transitive) To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.
   • 1596-99, Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, scene i:

     [...] To you, Antonio,

     I owe the most, in money and in love;

     And from your love I have a warranty

     To unburden all my plots and purposes

     How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

   • 1854, Charles Dickens, Hard Times, Chapter 7:

     He inherited a fair fortune from his uncle, but owed it all before he came into it, and spent it twice over immediately afterwards.

2. (intransitive) To have debt; to be in debt.

• The original past tense form was ought, which during Middle English began to be used with indefinite signification and has become a distinct verb. The original past participle has become the adjective own.

• woe

owe

1. water

• Terry Crowley et al, The Avava Language of Central Malakula (Vanuatu) (2006)

owe

1. Alternative form of yow

• “you, (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 18 May 2018.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔ.vɛ/

owe

1. nonvirile nominative, accusative, and vocative plural of ów