Etymologically
Log in

lousy

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 23:18. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lousi,[2][3] formed from Middle English lous + -i, from louse and the adjective suffix -y.[4][5][6][7] louse is from Old English lūs,[5][8] from Proto-Germanic *lūs, whose descendants include Old Norse lús and Old High German lūs;[5][9][10] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *lus- (“louse”), also the source of Welsh lleuen (“louse”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Full of or infested with lice: 1377, in Langland's Piers Plowman.[4][2] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century.[5]

Semantic evolution

Almost from the beginning the word was also used figuratively, as a general term of abuse for anything dirty, mean or contemptible: Chaucer's Friar's Tale (about 1386) has "a lowsy jogelour".[4][11][5][12] The Middle English Dictionary records it of cloth that bred lice and of worthless people.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "swarming with lice" and "mean; low born", quoting Shakespeare's "lousy knave".[13] From these the senses "inferior, bad" and "unwell, in poor spirits" developed.[4][7] The slang sense "swarming with, abundantly supplied with", as in lousy with money, arose in the United States, first recorded in 1843.[4][5][12] An adverb, "extremely, badly", is recorded from 1932, chiefly in North America,[4][11] and Green's Dictionary of Slang has lousy as a noun for a despicable person from 1934.[11] In Scottish and northern English dialect the word served as a term of contempt for anything dirty, shabby or mischievous, and it was used in plant names such as lousy arnut (the earth-nut) and lousy beds (the red campion).[14]

Timeline

  • 1377 – full of lice, infested with lice.[4]
  • c. 1386 – figurative: dirty, mean, contemptible.[4][11]
  • 1519 – lousy disease, the condition of being infested with lice (obsolete by 1830).[4]
  • 1843 – slang, originally American: swarming with, abundantly supplied with.[4][5]
  • 1932 – adverb, extremely, badly.[4]
  • 1934 – noun, a despicable person.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Very bad or inferior; of poor quality: a lousy hotel with thin walls.[15][16][6]
  2. Mean or contemptible; nasty: That was a lousy way to treat a friend.[15][16][6]
  3. Ill or unwell; in low spirits: I felt lousy all weekend.[15][4][7]
  4. Infested with lice.[15][16][6][4]
  5. (slang) Followed by with: amply supplied with, or full of: lousy with cash.[15][16][4]

Adverb

  1. (chiefly North American, informal) Badly; extremely.[4][11]

Word family

  • lousily
  • lousiness
  • crab louse
  • louse

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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. ^ 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)
  15. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins