Talk:Lollardy
Etymology[edit]
from "M[iddle] [Dutch] lollaerd, lit. 'mumbler, mutterer', f[rom] lollen to mutter, mumble". Three other possibilities for the derivation of Lollard have been suggested: the Latin name lolium (Common Vetch or tares, as a noxious weed mingled with the good Catholic wheat); after the Franciscan, Lolhard, who converted to the Waldensian way, becoming eminent as a preacher in Guienne. That part of France was then under English domination, influencing lay English piety. He was burned at Cologne in the 1370s; the Middle English loller, "a lazy vagabond, an idler, a fraudulent beggar"; but this word is not recorded in this sense before 1582.[5] It is recorded as an alternative spelling of Lollard. The Dutch derivation is the most likely. It appears to be a derisive expression applied to various people perceived as heretics - first the Franciscans and later the followers of Wycliffe. Originally the word was a colloquial name for a group of the harmless buriers of the dead during the Black Death, in the 14th century, known as Alexians, Alexian Brothers or Cellites. These were known colloquially as lollebroeders (Middle Dutch), 'mumbling brothers', or "Lollhorden", from Old German: lollon, meaning "to sing softly," from their chants for the dead.
The derivation from the Latin lolium (tares) may be an interesting alternative. Scholarly etymology, however, can show no proof of such a speculation.
From: Wikipedia