wooer

English

Etymology

woo +‎ -er; from Middle English wowere, from Old English wōgere, from wōgian (“to woo”).

Pronunciation

(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwu.ɚ/
(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwuː.ə/
Rhymes: -uːə(ɹ)

Noun

wooer (plural wooers)

Someone who woos or courts.
- 1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet XXIII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, OCLC 932931864; reprinted in Amoretti and Epithalamion (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas […], 1927, OCLC 474036557:
  Penelope for her Vliſſes ſake,
  Deuiz’d a Web her wooers to deceaue:
  in which the worke that ſhe all day did make
  the ſame at night ſhe did againe vnreaue,
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ii]:
  Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door.
- 1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], OCLC 13631815, page 120:
  She wrote such a widow-like refusal when she went from me, as might not exclude hope in any other wooer; whatever it may do in Mr. Tony Harlowe.
- 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton, Chapter 8,
  Sally Leadbitter was vulgar-minded to the last degree; never easy unless her talk was of love and lovers; in her eyes it was an honour to have had a long list of wooers.
- 1928, Dorothy Parker, “For a Favorite Granddaughter” in Sunset Gun, Garden City, NY: Sun Dial, p. 62,
  Never hold your heart in pain
  For an evil-doer;
  Never flip it down the lane
  To a gifted wooer.
- 1997, Saul Bellow, The Actual, New York: Viking, p. 20,
  She was, I think, the only girl I ever called on. I wasn’t much of a wooer. When I rang at her front door, her mother seemed taken aback. I should have been the dry cleaner’s messenger, picking up the blouses.

Synonyms

sparker
suitor

Translations

someone who woos or courts

Dutch: huwelijkskandidaat (nl) n
German: Liebeswerber m, Verehrer (de) m, Freier (de) (dated), Bewerber (de) m
Greek:
Ancient: μνηστήρ m (mnēstḗr)
Hungarian: udvarló (hu)
Italian: spasimante (it) m, corteggiatore (it) m, pretendente (it) m, postulante (it) m, richiedente (it) m
Korean: 구애자 (guaeja)
Latin: procus m
Old English: wōgere m
Polish: absztyfikant (pl) m, zalotnik (pl) m
Russian: кавале́р (ru) m (kavalér), ухажёр (ru) m (uxažór), покло́нник (ru) m (poklónnik), покло́нница (ru) f (poklónnica)
Tagalog: manliligaw

References

Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
Cambridge International Dictionary of English, "Wooer," .