woo

woo

See also: Woo

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: wo͞o, IPA^(key): /wuː/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː

Etymology 1

From Middle English wowen, woȝen, from Old English wōgian (“to woo, court, marry”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots wow (“to woo”). Perhaps related to Old English wōg, wōh (“bending, crookedness”), in the specific sense of "bend or incline (some)one toward oneself". If so, then derived from Proto-Germanic *wanhō (“a bend, angle”), from Proto-Indo-European *wonk- (“crooked, bent”), from Proto-Indo-European *wā- (“to bend, twist, turn”); related to Old Norse vá (“corner, angle”).

Alternative forms

• wo, wow, wowe (obsolete)

Verb

woo (third-person singular simple present woos, present participle wooing, simple past and past participle wooed)

1. (transitive) To endeavor to gain someone's support.
2. (transitive) (often of a man) To try to persuade (someone) to be in an amorous relationship with
   • 1718, Matthew Prior, epistle to Charles Montagu.

     Each, like the Grecian artist, wooes / The image he himself has wrought.

   • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], OCLC 837166078, [verse 17]; 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […], 1594, OCLC 701755207, lines [97–100]:

     I haue beene wooed, as I intreat thee now, / Euen by the ſterne, and direfull God of warre, / VVhoſe ſinowie necke in battel nere did bow, / VVho conquers where he comes in euery iarre; […]

3. (transitive) To court solicitously; to invite with importunity.
   • a. 1645, John Milton, “Il Penseroso”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, OCLC 606951673, page 39:

     Thee Chauntreſs oft the Woods among, / I woo to hear thy eeven Song;

   • a. 1850, William Cullen Bryant, Summer Wind

     I woo the wind / That still delays his coming.

   • 1962 April, “Death from Natural Causes?”, in Modern Railways, page 218:

     It will be a tragedy if further enterprises of this kind—for example, the one proposed between South Wales, Bristol and the South Coast via Salisbury—are now deferred until they, too, are realised too late to make an impact on a public that is too firmly wedded to the roads to be wooed back to the trains.

Synonyms

• (to solicit in love): court; see also Thesaurus:woo

Derived terms

• wooer

Translations

to endeavor to gain someone's affection

Arabic: تَوَدَّدَ‎ (tawaddada) Bulgarian: ухажвам (bg) (uhažvam) Catalan: festejar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 追求 (zh) (zhuīqiú), 求愛／求爱 (zh) (qiú'ài) Czech: dvořit se Danish: kurtisere Dutch: het hof maken Esperanto: amindumi (eo) Finnish: kosiskella (fi), riiata (fi), vokotella (fi) French: courtiser (fr), faire la cour (à) (fr) Galician: facer as beiras (gl) Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: den Hof machen, umwerben (de) Greek: κορτάρω (el) (kortáro) Ancient: μνηστεύω (mnēsteúō) Hebrew: (khizér akharéy), חיזר אחרי‎ Hungarian: udvarol (hu) Ido: kurtezar (io) Italian: corteggiare (it) Japanese: 求愛する (ja) (きゅうあいする, kyūai surú) Maori: aruaru, whakaipo, whaipo, whakawhaipo, mātoro Portuguese: cortejar (pt) Romanian: curta (ro), a face curte Russian: уха́живать (ru) impf (uxáživatʹ), сва́таться (ru) impf (svátatʹsja), добива́ться расположе́ния impf (dobivátʹsja raspoložénija) Serbo-Croatian: snubiti (sh) Spanish: cortejar (es), (Chile, informal) pololear (es), (Chile, slang) jotear (es), doñear (es) Swedish: uppvakta (sv), kurtisera (sv), svärma (sv) Turkish: kur yapmak (tr), (slang) yazmak (tr), (slang) asılmak (tr) Yiddish: אָווירען‎ (oviren)

Interjection

woo

1. (slang) Expressing joy or mirth; woohoo, yahoo.

   "I got you a new cell phone." "Woo, that's great!"

Adjective

woo (comparative more woo, superlative most woo)

1. Alternative form of woo woo

Noun

woo

1. Alternative form of woo woo
   • 2020 February 13, LinuxGal, “Atheists claim a 'thing' happened.”, in alt.atheism, Usenet‎, message-ID <alpine.DEB.2.21.2002150505580.3311@teresita-Latitude-D630>:

     Physics hasn't been "looking" at it, certain men who embrace the Copenhagen Interpretation rather than Many Worlds or the Pilot Wave angles are resorting to woo.

Anagrams

• OWO

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Afar

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwoː/
• Hyphenation: woo

Determiner

wóo

1. that, those (masculine)

See also

Afar demonstrative determiners

	masculine	feminine
proximal	á	tá
medial	amá	tamá
distal	wóo	tóo
very distal	wótti

References

• E. M. Parker; R. J. Hayward (1985), “woo”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015) L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎, Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis)

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Fula

Particle

woo

1. it is said that, it seems that

Etymology 2

From a Mande language.

Particle

woo

1. each, all
2. (with negative) none, no, only if

   Sikke woo alaa

   There is no doubt

   Mi hoolike woo si mi yiirii gite am

   I wouldn't believe it unless I saw it with my own eyes

Derived terms

• ka woni woo
• ko woni woo
• no woniro woo
• ñannde woo ñannde
• saa'i woo saa'i
• wonɗo woo wonɗo

References

• Oumar Bah, Dictionnaire Pular-Français, Avec un index français-pular, Webonary.org, SIL International, 2014.

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Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English wā, wǣ, from Proto-Germanic *wai, from Proto-Indo-European *wai.

Alternative forms

• wo, wa

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɔː/
• Rhymes: -ɔː

Noun

woo (plural woos)

1. woe, torment, anguish

   Synonyms: angwissh, we

Descendants

• English: woe
• Scots: wa, wae

Pronoun

woo

1. Alternative form of who (“who”, nominative)

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Moma

Etymology

Cognate with Wolio baa.

Noun

woo

1. head