wooer
nounUK /ˈwuːə/ · US /ˈwuəɹ/
Etymology From woo + -er; from Middle English wowere, from Old English wōgere, from wōgian (“to woo”).
1
Someone who woos or courts.
- Penelope for her Vliſſes ſake, / Deuiz'd a VVeb her vvooers to deceaue: / in vvhich the vvorke that ſhe all day did make / the ſame at night ſhe did againe vnreaue, […]1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet XXIII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, signature [B5], recto:
- Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door.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]:
4 more examples
- 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.1748, [Samuel Richardson], chapter XXIII, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 120:
- 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.1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 8, in Mary Barton:
- Never hold your heart in pain / For an evil-doer; / Never flip it down the lane / To a gifted wooer.1928, Dorothy Parker, “For a Favorite Granddaughter”, in Sunset Gun, Garden City, NY: Sun Dial, page 62:
- 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.1997, Saul Bellow, The Actual, New Yorks: Viking, page 20: