olé

an expression of encouragement and approval

Related: olé tus cojones

Unknown. Often supposed to be from Arabic الله (allāh, “God!”), used e.g. to express surprise, excitement, etc., and/or from related وَاللهِ (wa-llāhi, “by God!”), used as an oath or strong agreement. The Spanish Arabist Federico Corriente, however, counted the terms among the “falsos arabismos” (false Arabisms) in his work Diccionario de Arabismos y Voces Afines en Iberorromance. The counterargument is mainly phonetic, Arabic الله (allāh) being generally pronounced with a dark L and back vowels