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. 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). Ibid. (1594), 85.
1681. Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 101. The lowr’d mistakings of some men.
[1790. H. Walpole, Lett. to Miss A. Berry, 29 Nov. (1846), VI. 381. The lourd want of grace in Guercino.]
B. sb. A sottish fellow, a lout.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., July, 33. Syker, thous but a laesie loord, And rekes much of thy swinck. Ibid. (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.
