lout

[lout]

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noun

an awkward, stupid person; clumsy, ill-mannered boor; oaf.

verb (used with object)

to flout; treat with contempt; scorn.

Origin of lout

First recorded in 1540–50; perhaps special use of lout²

lout

[lout]

verb (used with or without object)

to bend, stoop, or bow, especially in respect or courtesy.

Origin of lout

1250–1300; Middle English louten, Old English lūtan; cognate with Old Norse lūta; akin to little

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for louts

bumpkin, buffoon, slob, brute, clod, lummox, clodhopper, oaf, goon, Philistine, bear, barbarian, rube, churl, boob, dolt, cad, vulgarian, dork

Examples from the Web for louts

Historical Examples of louts

And the louts come and pound at the great gate, and we pound back again, and shout at them.
Tom Brown at Rugby
Thomas Hughes
Near the roof, and I am to share it with one of those two louts you saw.
The Memoires of Casanova, Complete
Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
You think that these Prussian louts are going to beat the French army?
The Young Franc Tireurs
G. A. Henty
I vote we keep out of that this term, or leave it to the louts.
Tom, Dick and Harry
Talbot Baines Reed
He springs forward, he louts low and sweeps upwards with Whitefire.
Eric Brighteyes
H. Rider Haggard

British Dictionary definitions for louts

lout

noun

a crude or oafish person; boor

Word Origin for lout

C16: perhaps from lout ²

lout

verb

(intr) archaic to bow or stoop

Word Origin for lout

Old English lūtan; related to Old Norse lūta

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for louts

lout

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.