lass

Etymology

It is first recorded about 1300 as inherited from Middle English lasce, in two northern works, the “Metrical Homilies” and the “Cursor Mundi”; about 1390 it appears as las and lasse.^[2][3][4] Its origin is uncertain.^[5][6][7] According to Liberman, following Björkman (1912), the most probable source is a Scandinavian word like borrowed from Old Danish las (“rag”), which has the same cognates in Swedish dialects and Old Norwegian;^[3] he takes lasce as a Middle English diminutive of it.^[3] He points out that slang words for "rag" often come to mean "child" and especially "girl", as with Swedish flicka (“girl”) beside a word for a patch, and English brat from a ragged garment.^[3][8] He compares Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐍃𐌹𐍅𐍃 (lasiws, “weak”) as a possible relative of the Danish word.^[3]

The older explanation, Henry Bradley's of 1894, is repeated in the OED: a prehistoric Old Norse *lasqa, the weak feminine of *lasqar (“unmarried”), compared with Old Swedish løsk kona (“unmarried woman”).^{[9][3][2][10]} The spelling lasce would then show the northern change of Scandinavian “sk” to “ss”, as in northern “ass” for ashes.^[11][3] According to the OED the adjective meant first "free from ties", hence "unoccupied" and "having no fixed abode";^[9][11] the Oxford dictionaries give its feminine as laskura (“unmarried”).^[12][13][14] Barnhart compares Old Norse lǫskr (“idle, weak”), with the cognates West Frisian lask (“light, thin”) and German lasch (“slack, weak”) in German dialects,^[2][8][15] and the Gersum Project traces the Icelandic word to Proto-Germanic *laskwaz.^[16] Liberman rejects this: Ekwall showed that the reconstructed form did not exist, and lass never meant "unmarried woman" except by implication.^[3]

Johnson repeated Hickes's view that it was contracted from a feminine of lad,^[17] and O. Ritter (1910) took it from Old English lǣsse (“the lesser one”);^[3] Liberman rejects both, and holds that lad and lass are unrelated, although both are Scandinavian and appeared in the same northern texts at the same time.^[3] Chambers also thinks their association may be accidental.^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

A girl: about 1325, in the northern Metrical Homilies, spelt lasce.^[9][3] Barnhart and Etymonline date the word to about 1300.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The word has always been mainly northern and Scottish, and is still current chiefly in northern and north Midland dialects;^[3][10][12] Wright's dialect dictionary records it from Scotland and Ireland to Lincolnshire, also as a term of address.^[19] It has been paired with lad since the early 15th century.^[8] Spenser used it for a sweetheart (1596).^[9] Johnson (1755) remarked that it was "used now only of mean girls".^[17][8] In Scotland and the north of England it also meant a maidservant (recorded from 1788).^[9][4] From 1834 it was used playfully to a mare or a bitch,^[9] and in Warwickshire and Worcestershire my lass was a common word of encouragement or caution to a mare.^[19] From 1886 a lass was also a woman member of the Salvation Army.^[9] The diminutive lassie is mainly Scottish.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – a girl, as lasce.^[9] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to about 1300.^[2][8]
• c. 1390 – the forms las and lasse.^[2]
• 1596 – a sweetheart, in Spenser's Faerie Queene.^[9]
• 1788 – a maidservant, in Scottish and northern dialect.^[9]
• 1834 – a playful form of address to a mare or a bitch.^[9]
• 1886 – a woman member of the Salvation Army.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A girl or young woman; chiefly Scottish and northern English: She was a farmer's lass from the dales.^{[5][12][4][10]}
2. (informal) A familiar form of address to any woman or girl.^[5][19]
3. A sweetheart.^[4][9][18]
4. (chiefly Scottish) A maidservant.^[4][9][18]

Word family

• lassie

Related words

• lad
• brat

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liberman, Anatoly (2008), An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
17. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c d The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
19. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)