lass
(læs)
Forms: 4 las, lasce, 4–7 lasse, 6 Sc. lase, 6– lass.
[ME. lasce, las(se; perh. a. prehistoric ON. *lasqa, wk. fem. of *lasqar unmarried: cf. MSw. lösk kona unmarried woman.
The adj. means primarily ‘free from ties’; hence the above sense and those of ‘unoccupied’, ‘having no fixed abode’, which are also recorded in MSw. The lcel. lǫsk-r occurs only in the sense ‘idle, weak’.
The phonology of the Eng. word, according to the above conjecture, is somewhat difficult; but the same sound-change occurs in other northern forms, as ass for *ask (ashes), asse for ask v., buss for busk.]
1. a. A girl.
In northern and north midland dialects the ordinary word; in the southern counties it has little or no popular currency.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 2608 Til abram þan dame sare said, ‘Yone lasce..For-þi þat sco has barn o þe, Als in despit sco haldes me’. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 39 Bifor him com a fair yong lasce That Herodias dohter was. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Baptista 632 Medyature als wes he, betwene ws & þe trinite. ȝet he, þat of sic uertu wes, wes gefine til a lurdan las. a 1400–50 Alexander 3746 If any consaue þar a knaf þan kepis him his modire..Vij ȝere with-in oure-selfe... And be scho lyuir of a lasse scho lengis in our burȝe. a 1529 Skelton Col. Cloute 426 The money for theyr masses spent among wanton lasses. a 1592 Greene Geo. a Greene (1599) D 2, He that is olde, and marries with a lasse, Lies but at home and prooues himselfe an asse. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 156 This is the prettiest Low-borne Lasse, that euer Ran on the greene-sord. 1645 Waller Battle Summer Isl. ii. 47 A goodly theater, where rocks are round; With reverend age, and lovely lasses crown'd. 1672 Westminster Drollery ii. 80 Come lasses and lads Take leave of your Dadds And away to the May-pole hey. 1678 Ray Prov. (ed. 2) 80 The lass i' the red petticoat shall pay for all..meaning..a wife with a good portion. 1722 De Foe Moll Flanders (1840) 7 Pray which is the little lass that is to be a gentlewoman? 1777 Sheridan Sch. Scandal iii. ii. (song), Let the toast pass, Drink to the lass. 1786 Har'st Rig 55 The Highland lasses raise the song, In music wild, and sweet, and strong. 1805 Wordsw. Prelude viii. 38 But one there is, the loveliest of them all, Some sweet lass of the valley. 1843 A. Bethune Sc. Fireside Stor. 49 You are a good and warm-hearted lass, Jenny. |
b. spec. A maid-servant. Sc. and north. dial.
| 1788 Marshall Yorksh. II. 339 Lass, the vulgar name of a maid-servant. 1793 Statist. Acc. Scot. VIII. 350 As far as the lass has cash or credit, to procure braws, she will, step by step, follow hard after what she deems grand and fine in her betters. 1815 Scott Guy M. xlv, It will may be no be sae weel to speak about it while that lang-lugged limmer o' a lass is gaun flisking in and out o' the room. |
c. Applied playfully as a form of address to a mare or a bitch. Cf. girl n. 2 ¶ .
| 1834 Ainsworth Rookwood III. iv. viii. 332 ‘Art hurt, lass?’ asked Dick, as she [Bess] shook herself and slightly shivered. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xix, ‘Hi, Juno, lass—hi, old girl; down, Daph, down’, said Wardle, caressing the dogs. |
d. A female member of the Salvation Army.
| 1886 War Cry 9 Oct. 9/4 Cadets to be grouped together in Brigades..Lads or Lasses, as the case may be. 1890 W. Booth In Darkest Eng. i. vi. 55 Our two lasses go unharmed and loved at all hours. 1907 G. B. Shaw Major Barbara Pref. 171 Bill Walker,..having assaulted the Salvation Lass,..finds himself overwhelmed with an intolerable conviction of sin. 1967 W. S. Smith London Heretics iii. v. 238 In 1879 two of General Booth's lasses arrived in the Quaker stronghold of Darlington. |
2. A lady-love, a sweetheart. Also transf.
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. vi. iii. 14 And eke that Lady, his faire lovely lasse. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. v. iii. 17 It was a Louer, and his lasse. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 335 The youthfull Bull..Forsakes his Food, and pining for the Lass, Is joyless of the Grove. 1784 Cowper Task i. 36 There might ye see..the shepherd and his lass. 1788 R. Galloway Poems 90 The lads upon their lasses ca'd To see gin they were dress'd. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as lass-quean (dial.); † lass-lorn a., forsaken by one's lass or sweetheart.
| 1610 Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 68 Thy broome groues; Whose shadow the dismissed Batchelor loues, Being lasse-lorne. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxii, Ask the lass-quean there, if it isna a fundamental rule in my household. |