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)

1. 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; reprinted in Amoretti and Epithalamion (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas […], 1927, →OCLC:

     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, [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: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC, 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, chapter 8, in Mary Barton‎^[1]:

     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^[2], Garden City, NY: Sun Dial, page 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^[3], New York: Viking, page 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, Umwerber 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," [4].