Etymograph

English

loath

Loath comes from Middle English lōth.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lōth
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1678loath

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lōth
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1678loath

Earliest quotation: 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World: “Then ſaid Faint-heart, Deliver thy Purſe; but he making…”

The story

The word is cognate with Danish led (‘disgusting, loathsome; nasty’), Dutch leed (‘sad; (Belgium) angry’), French laid (‘ugly; morally corrupt’), Catalan lleig (‘ugly’), Icelandic leiður (‘annoyed, vexed; sad; (archaic or poetic) annoying, wearisome’), Italian laido (‘filthy, foul; obscene’), Old Frisian leed, Old High German leid (Middle High German leit, modern German leid (‘uncomfortable’), Leid (‘grief, sorrow, woe; affliction, suffering; harm, injury; wrong’)), Old Saxon lêð, lēth (‘evil person or thing’), Swedish led (‘bored; tired; (archaic) disgusting, loathsome; evil’).

Every English word from Middle English lōth

Today it means

adj Averse, disinclined; reluctant, unwilling. Always followed by a verbal phrase.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Middle English lōth / loath

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