Clipping ofEnglishWokam witho as a placeholder.
woo
- (international standards)ISO 639-3language code forManombai.
FromMiddle Englishwowen,woȝen, fromOld Englishwōgian(“to woo, court, marry”), of uncertain origin. Cognate withScotswow(“to woo”). Perhaps related toOld Englishwōg,wōh(“bending, crookedness”), in the specific sense of "bend or incline (some)one toward oneself". If so, then derived fromProto-Germanic*wanhō(“a bend, angle”), fromProto-Indo-European*wonk-(“crooked, bent”), fromProto-Indo-European*wā-(“to bend, twist, turn”); related toOld Norsevá(“corner, angle”).
woo (third-person singular simple presentwoos,present participlewooing,simple past and past participlewooed)
- (transitive) Toendeavor to gain someone'saffection/support.
They're trying towoo the customers back with this new mobile plan.
2025 May 11, Nadeen Ebrahim and Abbas Al Lawati, “Trump is visiting three of the world’s richest nations. Here’s what’s on their wish list”, inCNN[1]:Behind this carefully crafted strategy ofwooing Trump is a desire from Gulf states to solidify and formalize their positions as the US’ indispensable security and economic partners, and extract as much benefit for themselves as they can.
2026 January 3, Melissa Heikkilä, “Lunch with the FT: Yann LeCun”, inFT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 3:He [Mark Zuckerberg] wanted to start an AI unit at Facebook, and towoo [Yann] LeCun [he] invited him over for dinner at his California home. A private chef prepared “chicken with some pretty good white wine”, LeCun recalls.
- (transitive, often of a man) Totry to persuade (someone) to be in anamorous 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, andwooed him, to have lain by him; and ever the noble knight, Sir Launcelot, said her nay."
1594, [William Shakespeare],Venus and Adonis, 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […],→OCLC, [verse 17], lines[97–100]:I haue beenewooed, as I intreat thee now, / Euen by the ſterne, and direfull God of warre, / VVhoſeſinowie necke in battelnere did bow, / VVho conquers where he comes in eueryiarre;[…]
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; to solicit in love.
a.1645,John Milton, “Il Penseroso”, inPoems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth forHumphrey Mosely, […], published1646,→OCLC,page39:Thee Chauntreſs oft the Woods among, / Iwoo to hear thy eeven Song;
1962 April, “Death from Natural Causes?”, inModern Railways, page218: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 bewooed back to the trains.
to endeavor to gain someone's affection/support
- 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:hethofmaken
- Esperanto:amindumi (eo)
- Finnish:kosiskella (fi),riiata (fi),vokotella (fi)
- French:courtiser (fr),faire la cour (à) (fr)
- Galician:facer as beiras (gl)
- Georgian:მოხიბვლა(moxibvla)
- German:umwerben (de),für sich zu gewinnen versuchen
- Greek:κορτάρω (el)(kortáro)
- Ancient Greek:μνηστεύω(mnēsteúō)
- Hebrew:חיזר / חִזֵּר (he)(khizér)
- Hungarian:udvarol (hu)
- Ido:kurtezar (io)
- Italian:corteggiare (it),battere i pezzi
- Japanese:求愛する (ja)(きゅうあいする, kyūai surú)
- Māori:aruaru,whakaipo,whaipo,whakawhaipo,mātoro
- Polish:zalecaćsię impf,umizgiwaćsię impf
- Portuguese:cortejar (pt)
- Romanian:curta (ro),face curte
- Russian:уха́живать (ru) impf(uxáživatʹ),сва́таться (ru) impf(svátatʹsja),добива́тьсярасположе́ния 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)
- Ottoman Turkish:یشیللنمك(yeşillenmek)
- Yiddish:אָווירען(oviren)
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to try to persuade (someone) to be in an amorous relationship with
woo
- (slang) Expressing joy or excitement;woohoo,yahoo.
"I got you a new cell phone." "Woo, that's great!"
woo (comparativemorewoo,superlativemostwoo)
- Alternative form ofwoo woo.
woo
- Alternative form ofwoo woo.
2020 February 13, LinuxGal, “Atheists claim a 'thing' happened.”, inalt.atheism[2] (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 towoo.
2022 March 8, Laith Al-Shawaf, “Detecting Bull$%#!”, inPsychology Today[3]:The cognitive loopholes and biases that make uswoo-prone are a human universal.
- IPA(key): /ˈwoː/ [ˈwoː]
- Hyphenation:woo
wóo
- that,those (masculine)
Afar demonstrative determiners | masculine | feminine |
|---|
| proximal | á | tá |
|---|
| medial | amá | tamá |
|---|
| distal | wóo | tóo |
|---|
| very distal | wótti |
|---|
- E. M. Parker; R. J. Hayward (1985), “woo”, inAn 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)[4], Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis)
woo
- it is said that, itseems that
From a Mande language.
woo
- each,all
- (with negative)none,no,onlyif
Sikkewoo alaa- There isno doubt
Mi hoolikewoo si mi yiirii gite am- I wouldn't believe itunless I saw it with my own eyes
woo(Wiesemann spelling)
- alternative spelling ofwo
FromOld Englishwā,wǣ, fromProto-Germanic*wai, fromProto-Indo-European*wai.
woo (pluralwoos)
- woe,torment,anguish
- Synonyms:angwissh,we
woo
- alternative form ofwho(“who”,nominative)
Cognate withWoliobaa.
woo
- head
woo
- how
woo
- woe[1]
