“Whoa” is hardly a new word; it dates back to at least the early 17 th century. At that time it was used mostly in shouted form and was intended to garner the attention of someone in the distance.

Whoa, if true: A brief history of News Twitter’s favorite phrase It is one of the most common sarcastic responses to weird, exaggerated, and impossible news stories. Eric Geller ...

I assumed that the inability to spell “whoa” was a new phenomenon. It was definitely new to me. Had I come across “woah” or “whoah” in the past, I would have noticed. I’m sure of it.