WHOA!!!! WOAH?!?!

And a brand new crossword: Woah!

In this newsletter:

• The great WHOA debate

• A brand new crossword: Woah!

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The Great WHOA debate

This past Tuesday, the New York Times crossword included, for the fifth time, the answer WOAH. Its clue: “‘You just blew my mind,’ using a modern spelling” You can see the Times is trying to hold out and resist the change away from WHOA to WOAH. The last time it included WOAH, just three months ago, the clue was “‘Slow down!,’ spelled unusually”.

For better or for worse, I’m definitely part of the old guard. I spell it the old-fashioned way, WHOA. But more and more people are starting to spell it WOAH. How did this happen?! Merriam-Webster weighs in on the debate here, citing that the first use of WOAH in print longer ago than you might think. It was in the late 18th century!

… we see a variety of spellings employed: whoo, who, whoe, woyh, whoh, wo, woo, woa, and, with the first example from a 1790 source identified only as Merry Companion, woah. In the late 19th century, the word developed its more common modern use (sense 2 above), as in "Whoa, that's interesting."

I’m going to hold out for a little while longer.

How do you spell it? Please vote! I’m truly curious! [Unfortunately there is a bug with the polling, so it’s not showing up. Please comment below if you’d like to share your spelling preference.]

And thus, I’ve also created a crossword this week, inspired by the WHOA/WOAH debate. Enjoy it below!

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Here’s the crossword!

Woah a crossword! Solve it here. As always, please let me know in the comments what you think!

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Puzzle Hunt Playing Cards

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