Why the word "ouch!"?

Question

Why do people always use the word "ouch" when they get hurt? What does the word actually mean? Yeah, I know, people are feeling pain. But what does the word itself represent?

I know, stupid question. Now give me some stupid answers! That is, unless you know.

Answer 1

"ouch" is an interjection (words expressing strong emotion such as: wow, whoa, ouch, hey, oh, ugh..etc)

Answer 2

People just naturally started saying "ow" when they were in pain, therefore, we now use "ouch".

Answer 3

Directly comes from the Pennsylvania German "outch!" - they got it from the German "autsch!" and as for "autsch" well... we don't know, it's just what they said - I guess you're really no better off - same question, different word ;)

Answer 4

It comes from the German "autsch" meaning the same thing. It's strange that it has an etymology like that. It seems like it would be purely involuntary, like "achoo".

Answer 5

When it hurt, people normally say OW, and then....They decide it to make it formal and the word becomes "Ouch"? XD...Just made that up for the points ^^