lout

lout¹ to bow, stoop

Etymology

The word for bowing is inherited from Middle English louten,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English lūtan (“to bow low, stoop”),^{[3][2][5][6][7]} from Proto-Germanic *lūtaną (“to bow down”).^[1] It was originally a strong verb, with past tense lēat, plural luton and past participle loten.^[3][5] It corresponds to Old Norse lúta (“to stoop, bow down”),^[3][8][4] with the later forms Swedish luta and Danish lude.^[3][9] The OED traces it to a root Proto-Germanic *leut-, from Proto-Indo-European *leud-, whose first sense it takes to be that of this verb.^[3] The same root would have the sense "to lurk" and "to deceive", as in Old English lot (“deceit”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌿𐍄𐍉𐌽 (lutōn, “to deceive”), and "to be small", as in little.^[3][10][11] Outside Germanic, the OED and Watkins, as Etymonline reports him, see probable cognates in Lithuanian liūdėti (“to mourn”) and in an Old Church Slavonic verb for "to deceive".^[3][11] Orel, however, considers the verb of unknown origin.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bow low: in Old English, as Old English forthlūtan before 830 in the Vespasian Psalter, according to Barnhart, and as lūtan before 900.^[6][3] Bosworth–Toller quotes Hé árás and ðá tó eorþan leát, "he rose up, and then bowed to the ground".^[5]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old English the verb could take the person bowed to, for making obeisance or showing reverence,^[3] and the word stayed common in Middle English: Chaucer used it five times and Gower ten.^[12] A figurative sense, to stoop or submit, is recorded from c. 1330, in Mannyng,^[3] and a rare transitive use, to bow the head, from 1297, in Robert of Gloucester.^[3] Johnson (1755) marked the verb as obsolete, quoting Spenser's "louting low".^[13] It lived on, however, in Scots and in some northern and other dialects, also as loot and lowt, for stooping, bowing or touching the hat,^[14] and as an archaism in literary English.^[9][4]

Timeline

• before 830 – forthlūtan, to bow low.^[6]
• before 900 – lūtan, to bow low.^[6]
• 1297 – transitive, to bow the head.^[3]
• c. 1330 – figurative, to stoop or submit.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic) To bow or stoop, especially in respect: The herald louted low before the throne.^{[4][9][3][13]}
2. (archaic) To yield or submit to someone.^[4][3][9]
3. In Scots and some other dialects, to stoop or bend; to touch the hat.^[14]

lout² awkward, rude fellow

Etymology

The word for an awkward fellow is of uncertain origin.^[3][11] Many dictionaries think it may be from Middle English louten (“to bow down”), the ancestor of lout¹,^{[7][9][15][16][6][11]} and Barnhart calls this the general view.^[6] The OED thinks it perhaps a dialect word, connected either with that verb or with a verb meaning to hide or lurk, from Old English lūtian.^[3][1] Merriam-Webster Unabridged instead offers Old Norse lútr (“bent down, stooping”), from lúta (“to bow down”),^[4][17] and Klein and Skeat likewise took the original sense to be a stooping or bent fellow, with the Old Norse word as the source or the prompt.^[10][18] Etymonline leaves both routes open.^[11] Weekley preferred an alteration of lewd, because of early pairs such as “learned and lout” and “lord and lout”, with the sense coloured by the verb for bowing.^[19] Johnson, following Lye, gave Dutch loete.^[13] The verb is perhaps from the noun,^[3][9] although the Shorter Oxford allows that its later sense may have a separate source.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

An awkward, ill-mannered man: 1542 according to Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[4] the 1540s in Etymonline,^[11] and 1548, in Hall's Vnion, in the OED and Barnhart.^[3][6] The verb "to treat as a lout, to mock" has an earlier date in Merriam-Webster Unabridged, about 1530,^[4] but the OED's first quotation for it is from before 1547, in Redford's Wit and Science.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Weekley's early pairs set the lout against the lord and the learned man.^[19] The word was occasionally used for a servant, from 1567 to 1626.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a mean aukward fellow; a bumpkin; a clown", with quotations from Sidney and Shakespeare.^[13] The intransitive verb, to act like a lout or loll about, is recorded from 1807.^[3] At Rugby School it meant a common fellow or cad, as in Tom Brown's School Days (1857).^[3][11] In dialect the noun could mean a boy in the lower division of a school in Leicestershire, with no disparagement, or a spoilt child in east Suffolk, and the verb meant to idle about in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire.^[14] Lager lout, for a young man made aggressive by heavy drinking, is first recorded in a pamphlet of 1987 by George Williamson, writing as Chris Thompson.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1530 – verb, to treat as a lout, to mock.^[4] The OED's first quotation is from before 1547.^[3]
• 1542 – an awkward, ill-mannered fellow.^[4] The OED's first quotation is from 1548.^[3][6]
• 1567 – occasionally, a servant (until 1626).^[3]
• 1807 – verb, to act like a lout, to loll about.^[3]
• 1857 – at Rugby School, a common fellow, a cad.^[3][11]
• 1987 – lager lout.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rough, crude or ill-mannered person, especially a man; a boor or oaf: Two drunken louts shouted at the bus driver.^[21][4][9]
2. (Rugby School slang) A common fellow; a cad.^[3][11]

Verb

1. To act like a lout; to lounge or idle about.^[3][9][14]
2. (obsolete) To treat with contempt; to mock.^[3][9][4]

Word family

• loutish
• lager lout
• litter lout