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woo. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
woo, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
woo in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
woo you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Pronunciation
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
Verb
woo (third-person singular simple present woos, present participle wooing, simple past and past participle wooed)
- (transitive) To endeavor to gain someone's support.
- (transitive) (often of a man) To try to persuade (someone) to be in an amorous relationship with
1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XIX, Chapter viii, leaf 393v:Soo leue we syr Launcelot lyenge within that caue in grete payne / and euery day ther came a lady & brouȝt hym his mete & his drynke / & wowed hym to haue layne by hym / and euer the noble knyghte syre Launcelot sayd her nay.
"So leave we Sir Launcelot lying within that cave in great pain; and every day there came a lady and brought him his meat and his drink, and wooed him, to have lain by him; and ever the noble knight, Sir Launcelot, said her nay."
1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: Richard Field, , →OCLC; 2nd edition, London: Richard Field, , 1594, →OCLC, [verse 17], lines :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; […]
1718, Matthew Prior, epistle to Charles Montagu.:Each, like the Grecian artist, wooes / The image he himself has wrought.
- (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, page 39:Thee Chauntreſs oft the Woods among, / I woo to hear thy eeven Song;
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
Derived terms
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: umwerben (de), für sich zu gewinnen versuchen
- 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
- Polish: zalecać się impf, umizgiwać się impf
- 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)
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to try to persuade (someone) to be in an amorous relationship with
Etymology 2
Interjection
woo
- (slang) Expressing joy or excitement; woohoo, yahoo.
- "I got you a new cell phone." "Woo, that's great!"
Derived terms
Etymology 3
Adjective
woo (comparative more woo, superlative most woo)
- Alternative form of woo woo
Noun
woo
- 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.
2022 March 8, Laith Al-Shawaf, “Detecting Bull$%#!”, in Psychology Today:The cognitive loopholes and biases that make us woo-prone are a human universal.
Derived terms
See also
Anagrams
Afar
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈwoː/,
- Hyphenation: woo
Determiner
wóo
- that, those (masculine)
See also
Afar demonstrative determiners
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)
Fula
Etymology 1
Particle
woo
- it is said that, it seems that
Etymology 2
From a Mande language.
Particle
woo
- each, all
- (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
References
Middle English
Etymology 1
From Old English wā, wǣ, from Proto-Germanic *wai, from Proto-Indo-European *wai.
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Noun
woo (plural woos)
- woe, torment, anguish
- Synonyms: angwissh, we
Descendants
Etymology 2
Pronoun
woo
- Alternative form of who (“who”, nominative)
Moma
Etymology
Cognate with Wolio baa.
Noun
woo
- head