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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

lout.

A troublemaker, often violent; a rude violent person; a yob.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/laʊt//lʌʊt/Canada

  1. A troublemaker, often violent; a rude violent person; a yob.

  2. A clownish, awkward fellow; a bumpkin.

Where this word comes from

Of dialectal origin, likely derived from Middle English louten (“to bow, bend low, stoop over”), from Old English lūtan (“to bow, bend forward, stoop”), from Proto-West Germanic *lūtan, from Proto-Germanic *lūtaną (“to bow down, lout”). Alternatively, derived from Middle English louten (“to hide, lurk”), from Old English lūtian (“to lurk, skulk”), from Proto-West Germanic *lūtēn (“to be hidden, be concealed”). Compare Old Norse lútr (“stooping”), Gothic 𐌻𐌿𐍄𐍉𐌽 (lutōn, “to deceive”). Non-Germanic cognates are probably Old Church Slavonic лоудити (luditi, “to deceive”), Serbo-Croatian lud and Albanian lut (“to beg, pray”).

verb/laʊt//lʌʊt/Canada

  1. To treat as a lout or fool; to neglect; to disappoint.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

Of dialectal origin, likely derived from Middle English louten (“to bow, bend low, stoop over”), from Old English lūtan (“to bow, bend forward, stoop”), from Proto-West Germanic *lūtan, from Proto-Germanic *lūtaną (“to bow down, lout”). Alternatively, derived from Middle English louten (“to hide, lurk”), from Old English lūtian (“to lurk, skulk”), from Proto-West Germanic *lūtēn (“to be hidden, be concealed”). Compare Old Norse lútr (“stooping”), Gothic 𐌻𐌿𐍄𐍉𐌽 (lutōn, “to deceive”). Non-Germanic cognates are probably Old Church Slavonic лоудити (luditi, “to deceive”), Serbo-Croatian lud and Albanian lut (“to beg, pray”).

verb/laʊt//lʌʊt/Canada

  1. To bend, bow, stoop.

    archaic · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English louten, from Old English lūtan, from Proto-West Germanic *lūtan, from Proto-Germanic *lūtaną. Cognate with Old Norse lúta, Danish lude (“to bend”), Norwegian lute (“stoop”), Swedish luta.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.