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”), Serbo-Croatian луд (lud) and Albanian lut (“to beg, pray”).

Noun

lout (plural louts)

1. A troublemaker, often violent; a rude violent person; a yob.
2. A clownish, awkward fellow; a bumpkin.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Philip Sidney to this entry?)

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:troublemaker
• yob

Related terms

• lager lout

Translations

troublemaker

• Dutch: schurk (nl),ruziestoker (nl)
• 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

• Dutch: malloot (nl)
• French: malotru (fr) m

• Italian: goffo (it), maldestro (it), bifolco (it), zotico (it)
• Spanish: zopenco m, zopenca f

a rude violent man

• Dutch: onbeschofterik (nl),lummel (nl)
• German: Lummel (de) m

• Portuguese: grosso (pt) m

See also

• hooligan
• thug
• yob, yobbo

Verb

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

1. (obsolete, transitive) To treat as a lout or fool; to neglect; to disappoint.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

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 [...].