Oy Vey? Where'd it come from?

Question

My friend says this phrase all the time. She just texted me and she's trying to find the origin. Not just Yiddish. Like where exactly did it come from?

Answer 1

it's probably another one of those g*y french-phrases-in-english thingies.  like au deurves. cleché. faux pas. manage a trois. you know what i mean? like those g*y little phrases americans say that come from french?

Answer 2

the last person who knew it origins, surely must have died a long time ago. that phrase is as old as the bible itself

Answer 3

The origin of Oy Vey! It is vayehi–vy hi, “woe is it.”

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Whenever the Torah uses the word vayehi (”and it came to pass”), this connotes a woeful event. What woe was there in the Mishkan’s completion? This is comparable to a king who had a contentious wife. So he said to her: “Make me a purple cloak.” As long as she was preoccupied with it, she did not quarrel. When her work was completed, she brought it to the king. The king saw it and was pleased with it, and began to cry out, “Woe! Woe!” Said his wife: “What is this, my lord? I have labored to do your will, and you cry, ‘woe, woe’?” Said he to her: “The work is beautiful and favorable in my eye. But as long as you were preoccupied with it, you did not anger or provoke me; now that you are free of it, I fear that you will again anger me.”

So, too, said G-d: “As long as my children were occupied with the Mishkan, they did not grumble against Me. Now they will again begin to provoke Me.” Therefore it says vayehi–vy hi, “woe is it.”

(Midrash Tanchuma)

Also see link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Oy_vey