lourd (French)
Where does "lourd" come from?
French lourd comes down through Middle French lourd and Old French lorz/lourt from Late Latin lurdus, a word meaning roughly “slow, heavy.” That Late Latin form was probably connected to Latin lūridus, originally “sallow, pale,” so the sense seems to have shifted from a description of appearance to one of heaviness. The form and meaning may also have been nudged by Frankish *lort, “crooked, clumsy,” which is related to Old English lort, helping explain why lourd can also mean “clumsy” as well as “heavy.”
Full etymology tree
- lourd (French), 'heavy'
- inherited from lourd (Middle French)
- inherited from lorz (Old French)
- inherited from lurdus (Latin), 'slow, heavy'
- derived from lūridus (Latin), 'pale yellow, wan, sallow, lurid'
- derived from lūror (Latin), 'paleness, pallor, lividness'
- inherited from *loiros (Proto-Italic)
- inherited from *(s)leh₃y- (Proto-Indo-European), 'blueish'
- inherited from *loiros (Proto-Italic)
- derived from lūror (Latin), 'paleness, pallor, lividness'
- semantic loan from *lort (Frankish)
- derived from lūridus (Latin), 'pale yellow, wan, sallow, lurid'
- inherited from lurdus (Latin), 'slow, heavy'
- inherited from lorz (Old French)
- inherited from lourd (Middle French)
Ancestors
- lurdus (Latin)
- luridus (Latin)
Descendants and derived words
- artillerie lourde (French)
- avoir la main lourde (French)
- croiseur lourd (French)
- eau lourde (French)
- envoyer du lourd (French)
- hyperlourd (French)
- lourd de sens (French)
- métal lourd (French)
- poids lourd (French)
- relou (French)
- super-lourd (French)
Updated March 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris