Chapter Wishing-bone to Wokey of W by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Wo! Stop! (addressed to horses). “Ho!” or “Hoa!” was formerly an exclamation commanding the knights at tournaments to cease from all further action. (See Woosh. )

“Scollers, as they read much of love, so when they once fall in love, there is no ho with them till they have their love.”- Cobler of Canterburie (1608).

Woo' or Woo'e. Stop, addressed to a horse. The Latin word ohë has the same meaning. Thus Horace (1 Sat. v. 12); “Ohe, jam satis est. ”

Woosh when addressed to horses, means “Bear to the left.” In the West of England they say Woag- i.e. wag off (Anglo-Saxon, woh, a bend or turn). Woosh is “Move off a little.”

Woo-tee Dynasty The eighth Imperial dynasty of China, established in the south Liou-yu. A cobbler, having assassinated the two preceding monarchs, usurped the crown, and took the name of Woo-tee (King Woo), a name assumed by many of his followers.

Woden Another form of Odin (q.v.). The word is incorporated in Wodensbury (Kent). Wednesbury (Suffolk), Wansdyke (Wiltshire), Wednesday, etc.

Woe to Thee, O Land when thy king is a child. This famous sentence is from Ecclesiastes x. 6. Often quoted in Latin, Voe terris ubi rex est puer.

Woful Knight of the Woful Countenance. The title given by Sancho Panza to Don Quixote. (Bk. iii. chap. v.) After his challenge of the two royal lions (pt. ii. bk. i. chap. xvii.), the adventurer called himself Knight of the Lions.

Wokey Wicked as the Witch of Wokey. Wookey-hole is a noted cavern in Somersetshire, which has given birth to as many weird stories as the Sibyls' Cave in Italy. The Witch of Wokey was metamorphosed into stone by a “lerned wight” from Gaston, but left her curse behind, so that the fair damsels of Wokey rarely find “a gallant.” (Percy: Reliques, iii. 14.)