| 1 | Finnish | vaivainen | measly, paltry, miserable, wretched, pitiful,... |
| 2 | Finnish | vaiva | bother, inconvenience; ailment |
| 3 | Proto-Finnic | vaiva | bother, inconvenience; pain, illness, torment |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | waiwô | woe, grief, misery; evil, wickedness, malice |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | wai | oh!; woe! |