lout1
[lout]
- an awkward, stupid person; clumsy, ill-mannered boor; oaf.
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- to flout; treat with contempt; scorn.
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Origin of lout1
First recorded in 1540–50; perhaps special use of lout2
lout2
[lout]
- to bend, stoop, or bow, especially in respect or courtesy.
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Origin of lout2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for lout
Contemporary Examples
And Hitler looking like such a lout, a drunken lout, with that sort of ignorant sneer.
Historical Examples
He was the head of the school when I, the elder, was a lout in the lower fourth.
VivietteWilliam J. Locke
She yelled; and the knights, laughing, took the lout, And thrust him from the gate.
I saw that the lout was astonished not to hear the lamentations he expected.
The Memoires of Casanova, CompleteJacques Casanova de Seingalt
And he stood, something of a lout, with nervous hands upon his hips.
Gilian The DreamerNeil Munro
The lout was in clover; nothing could have suited him so well.
Little Novels of ItalyMaurice Henry Hewlett
lout1
- a crude or oafish person; boor
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Word Origin
C16: perhaps from lout ²
lout2
- (intr) archaic to bow or stoop
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Word Origin
Old English lūtan; related to Old Norse lūta
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for lout
n.
1540s, "awkward fellow, clown, bumpkin," perhaps from a dialectal survival of Middle English louten (v.) "bow down" (c.1300), from Old English lutan "bow low," from Proto-Germanic *lut- "to bow, bend, stoop" (cf. Old Norse lutr "stooping," which might also be the source of the modern English word), from PIE *leud- "to lurk" (cf. Gothic luton "to deceive," Old English lot "deceit), also "to be small" (see little). Non-Germanic cognates probably include Lithuanian liudeti "to mourn;" Old Church Slavonic luditi "to deceive," ludu "foolish." Sense of "cad" is first attested 1857 in British schoolboy slang.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper