louse

English

A head louse under illumination and magnified.

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From Middle English lous, lows, lowse, from Old English lūs, from Proto-Germanic *lūs (compare West Frisian lûs, Dutch luis, German Low German Luus, German Laus, from Proto-Indo-European *lewH- (compare Welsh llau (“lice”), Tocharian B luwo, maybe Sanskrit यूका (yūkā)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /laʊs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊs

Noun

louse (plural lice or louses)

1. A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea.
2. (colloquial, dated, not usually used in plural form) A contemptible person; one who is deceitful or causes harm.
   • 1946, Joseph Thompson Shaw, The hard-boiled omnibus: early stories from Black Mask (page 388)

     He said: "Thanks, friend; but you're wasting your time. You better warn Crocker. If that louse makes a play for me, he'll get hit with Chicago lightning!"

   • 1949, Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend (song)

     It's then that those louses go back to their spouses. Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Usage notes

• When used as a term of abuse, the plural is typically louses, though lice is also possible.

Synonyms

• (insect): (North America) cootie
• (contemptible person): maggot, worm

Derived terms

• body louse (Pediculus humanus)
• booklouse
• crab louse
• head louse
• hen louse
• louser
• louse-ridden
• lousy
• pubic louse
• sea louse
• three skips of a louse

 

Translations

insect

• Abaza: цӏа (cʼa)
• Abkhaz: аҵа (acʼa)
• Acehnese: gutee
• Ainu: キ (ki)
• Albanian: morr (sq)
• Arabic: قَمْلَة f (qamla), (collective) قَمْل m (qaml)

  Egyptian Arabic: قمل m (ʾaml) (collective), قملة f (ʾamla) (singulative)

  Moroccan Arabic: قمل m (qmal) (collective), قملة f (qamla) (singulative)

• Armenian: ոջիլ (hy) (oǰil)
• Aromanian: piduclju
• Assamese: ওকণি (ükoni)
• Asturian: pioyu m
• Avar: нацӏ (nacʼ)
• Aymara: lapʼa
• Azerbaijani: bit (az)
• Bashkir: бет (bet)
• Basque: zorri
• Belarusian: вош f (voš)
• Bengali: উকুন (bn) (ukun)
• Bezhta: нацо (naco)
• Biatah Bidayuh: gutis
• Breton: laou (br) (collective)
• Brunei Malay: kutu
• Buginese: utu
• Bulgarian: въ́шка (bg) f (vǎ́ška)
• Burmese: သန်း (my) (san:)
• Cappadocian Greek: φčείρ (fčeír)
• Catalan: poll (ca) m
• Central Melanau: kutou
• Chamicuro: nijpa
• Chechen: меза (meza)
• Chepang: क्रास् (body louse), स्रय्‍क्, सेक् (head louse)
• Chichewa: nsabwe
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 蝨乸／虱乸 (sat¹ naa²)

  Dungan: сыйзы (sɨyzɨ)

  Mandarin: 蝨子／虱子 (zh) (shīzi), 虱子 (zh) (shīzi)

• Czech: veš (cs) f
• Dalmatian: pedoclo m
• Danish: lus (da) c
• Dutch: luis (nl) f
• Dyirbal: (Guwal) ^{(please verify)} bayi marbu, (Jalnguy) ^{(please verify)} bayi dimaniny
• Eastern Kayah: sò
• Erzya: сий (śij)
• Esperanto: pediko (eo)
• Estonian: täi (et)
• Faroese: lús f
• Fijian: kutu (fj)
• Finnish: täi (fi)
• French: pou (fr) m
• Friulian: pedoli
• Galician: piollo (gl) m
• Georgian: მკბენარი (mḳbenari), ტილი (ṭili)
• German: Laus (de) f
• Greek: ψείρα (el) f (pseíra)

  Ancient: φθείρ m (phtheír)

• Guerrero Amuzgo: kítzkò
• Hawaiian: ʻuku
• Hebrew: כִּנָּה (he) f (kiná)
• Hindi: जूँ (hi) f (jū̃)
• Hungarian: tetű (hu)
• Hunzib: на̇цǝ (nåcǝ)
• Icelandic: lús (is) f
• Ido: lauso (io)
• Ilocano: kuto
• Imonda: ku
• Indonesian: kutu (id)
• Irish: míol cnis m
• Italian: pidocchio (it) m
• Japanese: 虱 (ja) (しらみ, shirami), シラミ (ja) (shirami), 寄生虫 (ja) (きせいちゅう, kiseichū)
• Javanese: tuma (jv)
• Jebero: čimɨŋ
• Kabuverdianu: piodju
• Kannada: ಹೇನು (kn) (hēnu)
• Kazakh: бит (kk) (bit)
• Khinalug: нимцӏ (nimc̣)
• Khmer: ចៃ (km) (cay), ដង្កែ (km) (dɑngkae)
• Korean: 이 (ko) (i)
• Kurdish:

  Kurmanji:

  Laki: ئِسپِژ‎ (ispij‎), شِش (şiş)

  Sorani:

  Southern Kurdish: سپیە (sipye)

• Kyrgyz: бит (ky) (bit)
• Lakota: hitka la
• Lao: ເຫົາ (hao), ເມັນ (men), ໄຮ (hai)
• Latin: pēdis (la) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latvian: uts (lv) f
• Lithuanian: utėlė f
• Livonian: tei
• Low German:

  German Low German: Luus f

• Lü: ᦠᧁ (ḣaw)
• Macedonian: вошка f (voška)
• Madurese: koto
• Malay: kutu (ms)
• Maltese: qamla f
• Manchu: ᠴᡳᡥᡝ (cihe)
• Maori: kutu
• Marathi: ऊ f (ū)
• Moksha: си (śi)
• Mongolian: бөөс (mn) (böös), ᠪᠥᠭᠡᠰᠤ (bögesu)
• Navajo: yaaʼ
• Ngazidja Comorian: nɗa
• Northern Ohlone: ká̄i
• Northern Thai: ᩉᩮᩢᩣ
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lus (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: lus f

• Occitan: pesolh (oc) m, mirgalhon m, piu m, peu (oc) m
• Ojibwe: ikwa, ikwag pl
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: въшь f (vŭšĭ)

  Glagolitic: ⰲⱏⱎⱐ f (vŭšĭ)

• Old East Slavic: въшь f (vŭšĭ)
• Old English: lūs f
• Old Norse: lús f
• Ossetian: сыст (syst)
• Pashto: سپږه (ps) f (spᶕźa)
• Persian: شِپِش (fa) (šepeš)
• Polish: wesz (pl) f
• Pontic Greek: φθείρι (ftheíri)
• Portuguese: piolho (pt) m
• Quechua: usa
• Romanian: păduche (ro) m
• Russian: вошь (ru) f (vošʹ), вши (ru) f pl (vši), во́шка (ru) f (vóška)
• Rusyn: уша f (uša)
• Sanskrit: यूका (sa) f (yūkā)
• Sardinian: peogu, piogu, piduciu, piducru
• Scottish Gaelic: mial f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ваш f, уш f

  Roman: vaš (sh) f, uš (sh) f, vaška (sh) f

• Shor: пит
• Sicilian: pidocchiu m
• Slovak: voš (sk) f
• Slovene: uš (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: weš f

  Upper Sorbian: woš (hsb) f

• Spanish: piojo (es) m
• Sundanese: otét
• Swahili: chawa (sw) class 9/10 sg pl
• Swedish: lus (sv) c
• Tagalog: kuto
• Tajik: шабушк (tg) (šabušk)
• Talysh: اسبج (əsbəj)
• Tamil: பேன் (ta) (pēṉ)
• Taos: phìayána
• Tatar: бет (tt) (bet)
• Telugu: పేను (te) (pēnu)
• Thai: เหา (th) (hǎo), โลน (loon)
• Tibetan: ཤིག (shig)
• Tok Pisin: laus
• Tsakonian: ψεῖρα (pseîra)
• Turkish: bit (tr)
• Turkmen: bit (tk)
• Udmurt: тэй (tej)
• Ukrainian: во́ша f (vóša)
• Urdu: جوں f (jū̃)
• Uyghur: پىت (pit)
• Uzbek: bit (uz)
• Vietnamese: rận (vi) (body louse), chí (vi), chấy (vi) (head louse)
• Vilamovian: łaojs f
• Volapük: puf (vo)
• Warlpiri: yaka
• Welsh: lleuen (cy) f, llau (cy) f pl
• Yiddish: לויז f (loyz)
• Zealandic: luus m
• Yámana: wam
• Zazaki: ıspıc c, espij c
• Zhuang: naenz
• Zulu: intwala class 9/10
• ǃXóõ: (large) ʘnó̰õ, (small) gǁkxʼóni

worthless person

• Albanian: qelbanik (sq)
• Bulgarian: гад (bg) m or f (gad)
• Dutch: (arme) luis m
• Finnish: luopio (fi), hylkiö (fi), epatto (fi)
• French: salaud (fr) m, salaude (fr) f, salop (fr) m, salope (fr) f, salopard (fr) m, saloparde f
• Galician: piollo famento m
• German: Dreckskerl m, Dreckkerl m, Lumpenhund m, Lumpenkerl m
• Greek: κοπρόσκυλον n (kopróskylon), ασυνείδητος (el) m (asyneíditos)
• Macedonian: гнида f (gnida), вошкар m (voškar), гад m (gad)
• Polish: gnida (pl) f, menda (pl) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: piolho (pt) m, sem-vergonha (pt) m or f, canalha (pt) m or f
• Romanian: păduche (ro) m
• Russian: гни́да (ru) m or f (gnída), гад (ru) m or f (gad), га́дская кровь m or f (gádskaja krovʹ)
• Slovak: všivák m, všivavec m
• Slovene: ušivec m, gnida f (highly pejorative)
• Spanish: sinvergüenza (es) m or f, canalla (es) m or f
• Swahili: chawa (sw)
• Swedish: skitstövel (sv), usling (sv)
• Telugu: పనికిమాలిన వ్యక్తి (panikimālina vyakti)
• Turkish: aşağılık kimse

Verb

1. To remove lice from.

Synonyms

• delouse

Translations

To remove lice

• Arabic: قِمْلَة f (qimla)
• German: lausen (de)
• Polish: iskać (pl) impf
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: иска́ть вшей (iskátʹ všej), вычёсывать вшей (vyčósyvatʹ všej)
• Spanish: despiojar (es)

Anagrams

• Eolus, Seoul, Soule, loues, oules, ousel, soule

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Middle English

Noun

louse

1. Alternative form of lous