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Wiktionary

lass

See also: laß, låss, and Lass

English

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WOTD – 12 October 2024

Etymology

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From Middle English las, lasce, lasse (“female infant or child; young woman”),[1] probably from Old Norse laskwa (“unmarried”, adjective).[2]

cognates

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lass (plural lasses) (archaic except UK, dialectal, informal or poetic)

  1. A girl; also (by extension), a young woman.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:girl, Thesaurus:woman
    Coordinate term: lad
    Come and dance, ye lads and lasses!
    1. (specifically) A female member of the Salvation Army; a hallelujah lass.
      • 1905, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Major Barbara”, in John Bull’s Other Island and Major Barbara: Also How He Lied to Her Husband, London: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1907, →OCLC, Act II, page 216:
        Jenny Hill, a pale, overwrought, pretty Salvation lass of 18, comes in through the yard gate, leading Peter Shirley, a half hardened, half worn-out elderly man, weak with hunger.
        A stage direction.
  2. (especially Geordie, Wearside) A sweetheart.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sweetheart
    Coordinate term: lad
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 14, page 388:
      But firſt him ſeemed fit, that vvounded Knight / To viſite, after this nights perillous paſſe, / And to ſalute him, if he vvere in plight, / And eke [also] that Lady his faire louely laſſe.
    • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 205, column 2:
      It vvas a Louer, and his laſſe, / VVith a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, / That o're the greene corne feild did paſſe, / In the ſpring time, the onely pretty rang [ring] time, / VVhen Birds do ſing, hey ding a ding, ding.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 106, lines 329–330 and 333–336:
      The youthfull Bull muſt vvander in the VVood; / Behind the Mountain, or beyond the Flood: / […] / VVith tvvo fair Eyes his Miſtreſs burns his Breaſt; / He looks, and languiſhes, and leaves his Reſt; / Forſakes his Food, and pining for the Laſs, / Is joyleſs of the Grove, and ſpurns the grovving graſs.
    • 1785, William Cowper, “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC, page 3:
      There might ye ſee the pioney ſpread vvide, / The full-blovvn roſe, the ſhepherd and his laſs, / Lap-dog and lambkin vvith black ſtaring eyes, / And parrots vvith tvvin cherries in their beak.
    • 1889, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “Leeby and Jamie”, in A Window in Thrums, London: Hodder and Stoughton, […], →OCLC, page 166:
      The love Leeby bore for Jamie was such that in their younger days it shamed him. […] "Hoo is your lass?" they used to cry to him, inventing a new game.
  3. (Northern England, Scotland) A female servant; a maid, a maidservant.
  4. (Scotland, familiar) A term of address for a woman, or a female animal.

Usage notes

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  • The word is still prevalent in parts of England (chiefly Lancashire, the Northeast, and Yorkshire), and in Ireland and Scotland. It is also sometimes used poetically in other dialects of English.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “lā̆s(se, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “lass, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022; compare “lass, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2024.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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German

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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lass

  1. singular imperative of lassen
  2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of lassen

Further reading

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  • “lass” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • “lass” in Duden online

Luxembourgish

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Etymology

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From Middle High German los, from Old High German *los, variant of lōs (“loose; free; lacking; sly, deceitful”). Compare for the short vowel Ripuarian Central Franconian loss, Dutch los. The uninflected stem of this adjective develops regularly into Luxembourgish lass, while the inflected stem yields the doublet lues (“slow, quiet”). See the English cognate loose for more.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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lass (masculine lassen, neuter lasst, comparative méi lass, superlative am lassten)

  1. loose, unattached

Declension

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declension of lass
number and gender singular plural
masculine feminine neuter all genders
predicative hien ass lass si ass lass et ass lass si si(nn) lass
nominative /
accusative 		attributive and/or after determiner lassen lass lasst lass
independent without determiner lasses lasser
dative after any declined word lassen lasser lassen lassen
as first declined word lassem lassem

Derived terms

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Polish

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈlass/
  • Rhymes: -ass
  • Syllabification: lass

Noun

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lass n

  1. genitive plural of lasso

Swedish

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en skottkärra med ett lass ved [a wheelbarrow with a load of wood]
 
ett stort lass [a big load]

Etymology

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Inherited from Old Swedish las. Originally the past participle of a verb derived from Proto-Germanic *hlaþaną (“to load”). Doublet of lada and last.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lass n

  1. a load (amount transported at one time (on a cart, (open) trailer, or the like, or carried), also as an (informal) unit of measurement)
    ett lass ved
    a/one load of firewood
  2. a load (large amount)
    glass i stora lass
    loads of ice cream [ice cream in big loads]

Usage notes

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Possibly also including the conveyance itself intuitively, like in the second image.

Declension

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Declension of lass
nominative genitive
singular indefinite lass lass
definite lasset lassets
plural indefinite lass lass
definite lassen lassens

Derived terms

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References

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Yola

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English los, from Old English los.

Noun

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lass

  1. loss

Etymology 2

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Noun

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lass

  1. Alternative form of lhose
    • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 84:
      Th' valler w'speen here, th' lass ee chourch-hey.
      The more we spend here, the less in the churchyard.

References

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  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 52
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