laud

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Old French laude, plural laudes,^[2][3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin laudēs,^[6][7] from Latin laudēs, the plural of laus (“praise, fame, glory”).^[3][6][7][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Dictionary.com take the Middle English singular laude as formed from the plural laudes, its meaning influenced by the Latin noun.^[6][9] The verb is borrowed from Latin laudō (“to praise”),^[2][6][3][5] a derivative of the noun, though the American Heritage Dictionary, Etymonline and Barnhart take it through lauder (“to praise, extol”).^[10][11][7] The Latin noun is probably cognate with Old English lēoþ (“song, poem, hymn”), Old Norse ljóð (“strophe, song”), Old High German liod (“song”), German Lied (“song”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐌸𐍉𐌽 (liuþōn, “to sing praises”), from Proto-Germanic *leuþą;^{[11][7][5][6][12]} Etymonline, following Watkins and de Vaan, traces it to an imitative root Proto-Indo-European *leut-.^[11] Partridge also compares Old Irish lúad (“news, speech”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the plural, the first of the day hours of the Church, whose psalms always end with Psalms 148–150, technically called laudes: before 1340, in Rolle's Psalter.^[2] Barnhart's first record of laudes is in the Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340).^[7]

Semantic evolution

The hour took its name from the psalms of praise sung at it, which repeat the Latin imperative laudate, "praise ye".^[4][14][11] Barnhart thinks this plural may have been the immediate source of the general sense "praise", found in Chaucer about 1375–1384,^[7][2] and that the noun in turn influenced the verb, recorded from 1377 in Langland's Piers Plowman, originally as an act of worship.^[7][2] The pairing to laud and bless (or praise, magnify) was common,^[2] and the Book of Common Prayer has "we laud and magnify Thy glorious name".^[6] From 1530 a laud was also a hymn of praise.^[2][6] Johnson (1755) gave both "praise" and the part of divine worship consisting of praise.^[15] The noun "praise" is now rare except in hymns,^[2][6] and the verb is literary.^[16]

Timeline

• before 1340 – plural, Lauds, the first of the day hours of the Church.^[2][7]
• 1377 – verb, to praise, to sing the praises of, originally in worship.^[2][7]
• c. 1384 – noun, praise, high commendation.^[2][7]
• 1530 – a hymn of praise.^[2]
• 1575 – a cause or subject for praise (rare).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To praise highly; to sing the praises of; to extol: Critics lauded the young director's first film.^[6][16][10]

Noun

1. Praise or glorification; now used chiefly in hymns: glory, laud and honour.^[6][10][2]
2. A hymn or song of praise.^[10][6][2]
3. lauds, often Lauds (singular or plural in construction): the morning office of the Church, sung at dawn in monasteries, which with matins forms the first of the canonical hours; also the time of this service.^{[6][10][16][3]}

Word family

• lauder
• belaud
• overlaud
• unlauded

Related words

• lied
• laudable
• laudatory
• laudation
• allow

Usage notes

A separate laud (pronounced /laˈuːd/), a Spanish lute, from Spanish laúd, is recorded in English from 1876;^[2][3][6] it goes back through Old Spanish to an Arabic word meaning "the wood", like lute.^[6] The OED also has an obsolete laud, a decision or judgement (about 1465–1542), from Medieval Latin laudum.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins