ohone, ochone, int. (n., v.)
(əʊˈhəʊn, əʊˈxəʊn)
Forms: 5 ochane, 7 oh hone, O hoan, 7– O hone, 8– ohon, 9– ochone, och hone, ohone.
[a. Gael. and Ir. ochòin, oh! alas! Often erroneously analysed, as if it contained the Eng. O!]
A Scottish and Irish exclamation of lamentation.
| c 1480 Henryson Test. Cres. 541 Ochane! Now is my breist with stormy stoundis stad. c 1604 I. C. Epigr. in Shaks. Cent. of Praise (1879) 63 He that made the Ballads of oh hone. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. v. (1651) 341 Houling O Hone, as those Irish women. 1685 Whigs Lament. in Roxb. Ball. (1885) V. 534 What have the Whigs to say? O hone! O hone! Tories have got the day; O hone! O hone! 1714 Ramsay Elegy J. Cowper i, John Cowper's dead—Ohon! Ohon! 1801 Scott Glenfinlas i, ‘O hone a rie'! O hone a rie'!’ The pride of Albin's line is o'er. Note, O hone a rie' signifies—‘Alas for the prince, or chief’. 1816 ― Antiq. xx, Ohon! it's an ill feight whar he that wins has the warst o't. c 1850 in R. Ward Penguin Bk. Austral. Ballads (1964) 52 The trees grew so thick I couldn't find it, ochone,..So bothered and lost was poor Paddy Malone. 1861 Trollope Tales of All Countries (ser. 1) 67, I could plainly hear poor Larry's head strike against the stone floor. ‘Ochone, ochone!’ he cried at the top of his voice. 1884 D. Boucicault Shaughraun 20/1 Och hone!—my darlin' boy, it will be a grand day for you, but your poor ould mother will be left alone..och-o-o⁓hone! 1913 W. B. Yeats Countess Cathleen in Poems 68 Ochone! The treasure room is broken in. 1919 G. B. Shaw O'Flaherty V.C. in Heartbreak House 186 Ochone! ochone! my son's turned agen me. Oh whatll I do at all at all? 1920 F. Scott Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise (1921) A Lament for a Foster Son... Ochone He is gone from me the son of my mind. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake 277 His sevencoloured's soot (Ochone! Ochonal!). |
b. as n.
| a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 180 The Members..repeated the Oh-hones Of his Wild Irish and chromatic Tones. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! xi, They could now hear plainly the ‘Ochone, Ochonorie’, of some wild woman. 1977 Irish Democrat Mar. 6/3 When Sarsfield sailed away I wept as I heard the wild ochone. |
c. as v. intr.
| 1829 G. Griffin Collegians III. xxxiii. 54 I'm ashamed o' myself, to be always..moaning and ochoning, among the neighbours. |