Where does “lousy” come from?
Lousy comes from Middle English lousy, meaning infested with lice or of poor quality.
lousy (English): Remarkably bad; of poor quality; Dirty or untidy;...
Definitions
- Remarkably bad; of poor quality; Dirty or untidy;...
Ancestry of “lousy”, step by step
lousy traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English louse
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | louse | A small parasitic wingless insect of the order... |
| 2 | Middle English | lous | louse; A person or thing worthy of contempt or... |
| 3 | Old English | lūs | louse |
| 4 | West Germanic | *lūs | — |
| 5 | Germanic | *lūs | — |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | lewH- | louse |
via Middle English lousy
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | lousy | — |