ouch

Uncertain. Some sources say the interjection is attested since 1838^[1] (and specifically in American English) and derives ultimately from German autsch,^[2][3] perhaps specifically via Pennsylvania German outch (“cry of pain”), as early attestations of the interjection are from Pennsylvania.^[3] However, others say the interjection is a "mere"^[4] or "natural" exclamation attested since the mid 1600s,^[5] and the 1933 OED^[3] cites one instance of a verb "ouch" in 1654, "Sancho Pancas Runs Ouching round the mountaine like a ranck-Asse".^[6]

• IPA^(key): /ˈaʊt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -aʊtʃ

• Audio (US, Inland Northern American):

  (file)

ouch

1. An expression of one's own physical pain.

   Ouch! You stepped on my toe! That hurt!

2. An expression in sympathy at another's pain.

   Ouch! Her sunburn looks awful.

3. A reply to an insult seen as savage (frequently one that is tongue-in-cheek or joking).

   Ouch. How could you say that?

4. An expression of disappointment.

   Ouch, I really wanted to do that.

5. (slang) Expressing surprise at the high price of something.

   Ouch, one hundred thousand dollars for a car! I could never afford that!

• (in all of the above senses): oof, ow, owie, youch, yow, yowch

ouch (plural ouches)

1. (informal) Something that causes discomfort or pain.

   Synonym: ooch

   • 1986 June, “RhuliGel Soothes the Itches and Ouches of Summer [advertisement]”, in Myrna Blyth, editor, Ladies’ Home Journal, volume CIII, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Meredith Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 161, column 2:

     RhuliGel soothes the itches and ouches of summer.

ouch (third-person singular simple present ouches, present participle ouching, simple past and past participle ouched)

1. (intransitive) To exclaim "ouch!" in discomfort or pain.
   • 1984 April 21, “Mousie Mousie Wildflower”, in Gay Community News, page 18:

     Imperturbability your skill, not mine / I ouch out loud and clear / Your forgiveness, like Pope's divine / I'm just an angry queer

Variant forms.

ouch (plural ouches)

1. Alternative form of ouche

• Chou, Chūō, chou

• IPA^(key): /uʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

ouch

1. interjection expressing a sharp pain: ouch!

• (expression of pain): aïe, ahi, ouille, ayoye (Quebec)

From Old High German ouh, from Proto-West Germanic *auk, from Proto-Germanic *auk.

• IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /ˈou̯x/

ouch

1. also, too, as well

• Alemannic German: au
• Cimbrian: òch
• Central Franconian:
  • Hunsrik: aach
  • Luxembourgish: och
• German: auch
• Rhine Franconian:
  • Pennsylvania German: aa
• Yiddish: אויך (oykh)

• Benecke, Georg Friedrich, Müller, Wilhelm, Zarncke, Friedrich (1863) “ouch”, in Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch: mit Benutzung des Nachlasses von Benecke, Stuttgart: S. Hirzel
• "ouch" in Köbler, Gerhard, Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch (3rd edition 2014)