▪ I. † lourd, a. and n. Obs.
Also 4 lourde, 5 lowrde, lowryd(e, 6 lowrd, loord, lurde, 7 lowr'd.
[a. F. lourd heavy.]
A. adj. Sluggish, dull, sottish, stupid.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 149 To se so lusti on as sche Be coupled with so lourde a wiht. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. x. 1670 Made hym bot lowryd chere. 1564 J. Martiall Treat. Cross 119 b [Images] quicken the memory which in many is fickle, help ignoraunce, which in some is lurde. ? 1590 A. Hume Poems (S.T.S.) 19 The mortall, caduck, carnall corps (a lowrd and brukill mas). 1594 Ibid. 85. 1681 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 101 The lowr'd mistakings of some men. [1790 H. Walpole Let. to Miss A. Berry 29 Nov. (1846) VI. 381 The lourd want of grace in Guercino.] |
B. n. A sottish fellow, a lout.
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. July 33 Syker, thous but a laesie loord, And rekes much of thy swinck. 1590 ― F.Q. iii. vii. 12 A laesy loord, for nothing good to donne. |
Hence † lourdish, † lourdly, lourdy adjs., in the same sense.
| 1600 Hosp. Incur. Fooles 41 Of dottuls and shallow-pated Fooles..These Infortunate and Lourdish sort. 1674 Ray S. & E.C. Words 71 Lourdly, Sluggish. Suff. 1721 Bailey, Lourdy, slothful, sluggish. Suss. |
▪ II. lourd Sc.
(lurd)
[Alteration of lour, var. of lever liefer, the structure of the phrase suggesting a pa. pple. as appropriate.]
Only in I had or wad lourd = ‘I had rather’.
| ? 17.. Child Morice in Child Ballads II. 275, I rather lourd it had been my sel Than eather him or thee. 1799 Scott Sheph. Tale, But I had lourd melle with fiends of hell Than with Clavers and his band. a 1802 Jamie Telfer xliii. in Child Ballads IV. 7, I wad lourd have had a winding-sheet And helped to put it ower his head. a 1802 Broom of Cowdenknows xviii. ibid. IV. 199 And ere he had taken the lamb he did I had lourd he had taen them a'. |