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Added 10 October 2026

louse

/laʊs/ noun

In Latin: pēdis Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about louse at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Wingless usually flattened bloodsucking insect parasitic on warm-blooded animals.
A person who has a nasty or unethical character undeserving of respect.
Any of several small insects especially aphids that feed by sucking the juices from plants.

Origin

From Middle English lous, lows, lowse, from Old English lūs, from Proto-West Germanic *lūs, from Proto-Germanic *lūs, from Proto-Indo-European *lewH-. Cognate with West Frisian lûs, Dutch luis, German Low German Luus, German Laus, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish lus, Faroese and Icelandic lús; also Welsh llau (“lice”), Tocharian B luwo, maybe Sanskrit यूका (yūkā).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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