louse

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lous, also lowse,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English lūs, plural lȳs,^[5][2][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *lūs.^{[4][8][1][9][10]} It is cognate with Middle Low German lūs, Middle Dutch luus, Dutch luis, Old High German lūs, German Laus and Old Norse lús.^{[5][4][6][11]} Outside Germanic, cognates are found only in Celtic:^[4] Welsh lleuen, plural llau, Cornish lowen and Breton louen.^[4][6][3][9] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *lus- (“louse”),^[8] and Barnhart to *lūs.^[4] The plural lice shows the i-mutation of the vowel before the Proto-Germanic plural *lūsiz; it was already lȳse in early Old English.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A parasitic insect living on the human body, in the Corpus Glossary;^[5] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 700.^[4] Old English texts mention lice on the body and in the land of Egypt, and remedies to kill them.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the insect, and in phrases such as not worth a louse it stood for something worthless.^[5] From 1633 it was applied in scorn to people,^[5][8] and Green's Dictionary of Slang follows this contemptible or untrustworthy person through the 17th and 18th centuries.^[12] The verb, to pick lice from someone or something, is recorded from the 14th century, in Trevisa.^[5][4][2] In the United States louse up was used in 1931 of infesting with lice; by 1934, in John O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra, it meant to spoil or mess something up.^[5][4][8] The adjective lousy, "infested with lice", is recorded from about 1350, and its figurative sense "worthless" from Chaucer.^[4] Johnson (1755) described the louse as a small animal living on the bodies of men and beasts, quoting the plague of lice in Exodus.^[13]

Timeline

• Old English – a parasitic insect of the human hair and skin.^[5][4]
• before 1387 – verb, to clear of lice, in Trevisa.^[5][4]
• before 1592 – a type of something worthless, as in not worth a louse.^[5]
• 1608 – verb, to be infested with lice (obsolete), in Shakespeare.^[5]
• 1633 – a contemptible person.^[5][8]
• 1931 – louse up, to infest with lice.^[5][8]
• 1934 – louse up, to spoil, to mess up.^[5][4][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of various small, wingless, flattened insects that live as parasites on mammals and birds, such as the head louse and the body louse.^[2][14][5]
2. Any of various similar but unrelated small creatures, such as the woodlouse, the plant louse and the booklouse.^[14][2]
3. (plural louses; informal) A contemptible or untrustworthy person.^{[14][2][5][12]}

Verb

1. To remove lice from: The monkeys took turns lousing each other.^[2][5]
2. louse up (slang): to spoil or botch something.^[5][15][8]

Word family

• lousewort
• booklouse
• lousy
• louse up
• plant louse

Related words

• lice
• delouse

Usage notes

The plural lice is used for the insects, and louses for contemptible people.^[15][14] In Herefordshire and Yorkshire dialect louse up was also said of frothing up ale.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ 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)