"woo" is just a DU term,right?

[lindysalsagal]

So, I can just ignore it until it goes away,right?

[Skittles]

1. it's for people unaware of the word QUACKERY

[marybourg]

15. Sometimes called "snake oil"

[Humanist_Activist]

16. Both those terms I prefer, in addition to bullshit. n/t

[Skittles]

21. LOL

see, three perfectly good words right there yet they persist in this WOO nonsense

[JaneyVee]

2. Feeling woozy?

[caraher]

3. Nope

Though it does seem to have acquired some nonstandard meanings here.

Here's one guide to its use in the wild of the Internets...

[Pholus]

4. I am so glad to finally see a flame war where I could care less....

Yes, I believe in the peer review and the scientific method.

But.

I think pretty much every post by the "woo police" has been so gratingly annoying that I end up rooting for "woo" just to tick em off.

Not to mention, it's all well and good to toss around the magic words "peer review" but when only 6 of 53 supposedly landmark cancer studies could be reproduced a couple years back can we really say peer review is working right now?

[longship]

5. I believe it was coined by James Randi.

Although he called it "woo-woo" (later shortened to just "woo&quot .

It just means some unscientific, or even anti-scientific notion in culture which has the potential to promote ignorance, and possible harm.

[Recursion]

8. From the presumed sound of a flying saucer, IIRC? (nt)

[longship]

11. I am not sure about that. But maybe.

E-mail him and ask him.

[X_Digger]

14. Or waving your hands going 'woo woo wooo', perhaps. ;)

[Vashta Nerada]

6. No.

The world's leading scientists use that term, including Richard Dawkins.

[Recursion]

7. I still think of it as meaning a joint with cocaine sprinkled in it (nt)

[Coyotl]

9. I once was a wooing wooer, seriously, and then

they changed the definition of woo.

Apparently, in some virtual dictionary somewhere, woo means that bullshit that we are tempted to believe, false ideas that invite and tempt.
Undoubtedly, the word of origin for woo in English is woman, so therein lies the rub. Women should not be equated with bullshit, for sure!!
So, what we got to properly call bullshit bullshit besides bullshit?

woo
v. wooed, woo·ing, woos
v.tr.
1. To seek the affection of with intent to romance.
2.
a. To seek to achieve; try to gain.
b. To tempt or invite.
3. To entreat, solicit, or importune.
v.intr.
To court a woman.
[Middle English wowen, from Old English wgian.]
wooer n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
woo (wuː
vb, woos, wooing or wooed
1. to seek the affection, favour, or love of (a woman) with a view to marriage
2. (tr) to seek after zealously or hopefully: to woo fame.
3. (tr) to bring upon oneself (good or evil results) by one's own action
4. (tr) to beg or importune (someone)
[Old English wōgian, of obscure origin]
ˈwooer n ˈwooing n

[pinboy3niner]

10. I hear skinner is changing the site name from DU to DWOO

[RobertEarl]

12. Woo means made up, or false

The term woo is used by those who fully support the current medical practice (Practice?!?!?) of giving you all these pills and shots.

Seems to me most of these same people think nuclear power plants are 'safe'.

Kinda weird, isn't it?

[X_Digger]

13. Not really.. folks in my circle of friends use it to refer to..

.. religious crap, junk science, spiratualist hokum (reincarnation, past lives, ghosts, ESP), UFOs, junk "medicine" (acupuncture, 'detox' bullshit, etc), and general conspiracy crap like chemtrails. (I know, that extends it past what DU calls 'woo'.)

[RobertEarl]

17. They are anti-science?

You may need better friends?

Science, the true scientific method, does not just conclude none of what your fiends are high on as woo. Instead, it examines the claims before any conclusions are made.

To make conclusions as your friends have done is actual anti-science.

[X_Digger]

19. No, they're a bunch of engineers, a pediatrician, an honest-to-goodness nuclear physicist, and..

.. a bunch of marine / invertebrate biologists.

We laugh our asses off at the harmless woo, shake our heads at the stupid woo, and get mad as hell at the woo that kills people (like anti-vax cretins.)

[RobertEarl]

22. Laugh at anti-science?

Shame on them!!

They put themselves up as scientists and then deny doing diligent science? Oh, I guess if they could get grant money they'd be all over it, eh?

[NuclearDem]

18. No, woo-woo was a term that originated as the onomatopoeia of magic and illusion.

Later shortened to just woo.

[SidDithers]

20. Nope...nt

Sid