lout

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /laʊt/

  Rhymes: -aʊt

Etymology 1

Of dialectal origin, compare Middle English louten "to bow, bend low, stoop over" from Old English lūtan from Proto-Germanic *leut-. Cognate with Old Norse lútr (“stooping”), Gothic 𐌻𐌿𐍄𐌾𐌽 (luton, “to deceive”). Non-Germanic cognates are probably Old Church Slavonic лоудити (luditi, “to deceive”) and Serbo-Croatian луд (lud).

Noun

lout (plural louts)

1. Troublemaker, often violent.
2. A clownish, awkward fellow; a bumpkin.
3. a rude violent man, yob.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:troublemaker
• yob

Related terms

• lager lout

Translations

troublemaker

French: voyou (fr) m. Hindi: गुंडा (hi) (guṇḍā) m. Italian: tanghero (it), villano (it), cafone (it), zoticone (it)

Russian: хулиган (ru) (xuligán) m. Scottish Gaelic: burraidh (gd) m. Spanish: salvaje m., gamberro m. (Spain), barra brava m. (Argentina)

bumpkin

French: malotru (fr) m. Italian: goffo (it), maldestro (it), bifolco (it), zotico (it)

Spanish: zopenco m., zopenca f.

a rude violent man

Portuguese: grosso (pt) m.

See also

• hooligan
• thug
• yob, yobbo

Etymology 2

Old English lūtan, from Germanic. Cognate with Old Norse lúta, Danish lude (“to bend”), Norwegian lute (“stoop”), Swedish luta.

Verb

lout (third-person singular simple present louts, present participle louting, simple past and past participle louted)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To bend, bow, stoop.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.i:

     He faire the knight saluted, louting low, / Who faire him quited, as that courteous was [...].

   • 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, vol. 1:

     He took the cup in his hand and, louting low, returned his best thanks [...].