woo-woo

8 December 2025

Ghosts, magic crystals, faeries, homeopathy, Bigfoot, astrology, and the like are all examples of woo-woo or woo. But why are they called that? When and where does the term come from?

The Oxford English Dictionary and Green’s Dictionary of Slang both say that woo-woo is onomatopoeia for a ghostly sound associating such beliefs with mysticism and belief in ghostly hauntings. While this origin is certainly possible, the earliest known use of the term militates against this somewhat. That use is in Philip J. Farmer’s 1971 science fiction story, “Only Who Can Make a Tree?” where the term is used simply to mean crazy, insane:

She’s nuts, out of her skull, real woo-woo, you know. But a brilliant idea man! She’s the one thought of the moths.

1971 places this use at the beginning of New Age movement, and Farmer may be using woo-woo with that in mind, but the story’s context doesn’t evoke the ideas usually associated with that movement.

We see woo-woo associated with mystical or alternative beliefs in a 21 October 1984 article about New Age music in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

George Winston, who practices yoga and currently has three albums on the jazz charts […], has jokingly called this crowd the “woo-woos.” In a 1983 interview in the New Age Journal, Winston, asked if he knew who comprised his audience, answered that there were some classical fans, some jazz, some pop and “all the woo-woos.”

“You know,” he added, “there’s real New Age stuff that has substance, and then there’s the woo-woo. A friend of mine once said, ‘George, you really love these woo-woos, don’t you?’ and I said ‘Yes, I do love them,’ and I do. I mean, I’m half woo-woo myself.

And such beliefs are more directly associated with the term in this 20 June 1986 article in the Seattle Times:

Of course, not everyone who thinks that science doesn’t tell all would think it’s reasonable to believe, as Gibson does, that one can program crystals with thought energy. But Gibson says there is ample evidence—both scientific and subjective—that crystals can help in healing and transformation.

“You can say it’s woo-woo,” she says with a laugh. “But it works. I go with what works.”

And even if it doesn’t work, that’s not any reason to dismiss a practice entirely, she says.

Although some believers use the term in a joking manner, woo-woo is inherently derogatory and dismissive. Why this is so can be seen in this use of the term in the Washington Post of 23 July 2001:

It’s tough to compare one era’s stock of ooga-booga with another’s. In the 1200s, scholars researched the size, shape and precise location of Hell, as well as how many angels could fit on the head of a pin.

Today’s supply of woo-woo is certainly remarkable, however. At no time in human history has scientific rationality so thoroughly underpinned our society and the world’s economy.

That the term comes from the traditional sound of ghostly emanations remains the most likely explanation for the term’s origin, but this is not certain. Other explanations have been proffered, albeit without evidence.  Some have suggested that woo-woo is imitative of the sound of a theremin, used to provide the musical score to many classic sci-fi and horror films. That explanation, though, is just a variant on the ghostly emanation explanation. One need not bring theremins into the discussion. Others have suggested that it is derivative of Curly’s, of Three Stooges fame, iconic cry of woob, woob, woob, perhaps used by mental health workers to classify the rantings of their patients. That would fit with the 1971 denotation of crazy, insane, but there is no evidence of mental health workers using the term in this context.

Sources:

Barrett, Grant. The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006, s.v. woo-woo. (Also at A Way with Words).

Farmer, Philip Jośe. “Only Who Can Make a Tree?” Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1971,46–55 at 48/1. Archive.org.

Garreau, Joel. “Science’s Mything Links.” Washington Post, 23 July 2001, C1–C2. ProQuest Newspapers.

Green’s Dictionary of Slang, accessed 7 November 2025, s.v. woo-woo, n.

Ostrum, Carol M. “In the Spirit: New Age Adherents Follow a Personal Path,” Seattle Times (Washington), 20 June 1986, E2/3. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Oxford English Dictionary Online, September 2021, s.v. woo-woo, adj. & n.

Rea, Stephen X. “The New Age Sound: Soothing Music by Sincere Artists,” Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania), 21 October 1984, 16-I/1. ProQuest Newspapers.

Photo credit: Peter J StB Green, 2006. Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.