Other forms: wooing, wooed, woos
To woo is to court somebody, or to try hard to win their support. Woo the voters, wooed her for years, woo investors.
The romantic sense is archaic and slightly comic now, while the figurative one is alive in business and politics — companies woo customers constantly. The word is Old English and its further origin is unknown.
1verbwooTo court somebody, or to try to win their support.
“He wooed her with flowers and poems until she agreed to marry him.”
woo is a courting.
Old English wogian means to court or woo; the further origin is unknown.
Old English
wōgian — to woo, court, marry
Middle English
wowen
English, today
woo
From Middle English wowen, woȝen, from Old English wōgian (“to woo, court, marry”), of unknown 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”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA