loobyn.
/ˈluːbi/ Now chiefly dialect.
a. A lazy hulking fellow; a lout; an awkward, stupid, clownish person.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupid, foolish, or inadequate person > stupid person, dolt, blockhead > lout, oaf, booby > [noun]
lubber1362
looby1377
howfing?a1513
slouch?1518
bowberta1522
knuckylbonyarda1529
lob1533
lout1548
patch1549
hoballa1556
lilburnea1556
lobcocka1556
chub1558
hick1565
lourd1579
peasant1581
clown1583
lubbard1586
lumberer1593
lump1597
blooterc1600
boobyc1600
lob-coat1604
hoy1607
bacon-brainsa1635
alcatote1638
oaf1638
kelf1665
brute1670
dowf1722
gawky1724
chuckle1731
chuckle-head1731
John Trott1753
stega1823
lummoxa1825
gawk1837
country jakea1854
guffin1862
galoot1866
stot1877
lobster1896
mutt1900
palooka1920
schlub1950
1377 W. Langland Piers Plowman B. Prol. 55 Grete lobyes and longe that loth were to swynke.
?1529 S. Fish Supplicacyon for Beggers sig. A8 Set these sturdy lobies a brode in the world..to get theire liuing with their laboure.
c1540 Image Ipocrysy iv, in J. Skelton Poet. Wks. (1843) II. 440 With priors of like place..Great lobyes and lompes.
1577 R. Stanyhurst Treat. Descr. Irelande ii. f. 7v/2, in R. Holinshed Chron. I Sir, you take me very shorte, as long and as very a lowbie as you imagine to make me.
1629 A. Symmer Spirituall Posie i. ix. 30 What is the state then of the sluggard, the lazie Lizzard, and the luskish Lubby?
1681 Heraclitus Ridens 8 Nov. 2/1 This is but like a great Looby at School, who [etc.].
1696 E. Phillips New World of Words (new ed.) at Lob A great heavy sluggish Fellow is called a Lob, Loubee [1706 Looby], or Lob-cock.
?1706 E. Hickeringill Priest-craft: 2nd Pt. Pref. sig. A4 Homer—Achilles makes a great strong Looby.
1713 R. Steele Englishman No. 24. 158 [These] are all convincing Arguments to a Country Looby.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1783 II. 449 Johnson: A savage when he is hungry will not carry about with him a looby of nine years old, who cannot help himself.
1821 J. Clare Village Minstrel I. 159 A good-for-nought looby, he nettled me sore.
1845 B. Disraeli Sybil II. iv. xi. 271 I went once and stayed a week at Lady Jenny Spinner's to gain her looby of a son and his eighty thousand a-year.
1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus Poems xxii. 11 No ditcher e'er appeared more rude, No looby coarser.
1872 ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch II. iv. xxxv. 213 While I tell the truth about loobies, my reader's imagination need not be entirely excluded from an occupation with lords.
1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. Looby, an awkward, ignorant lout.
b. attributive and appositive, passing into adj. Also in combination looby-like.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > inability > unskilfulness > [adjective] > clumsy or awkward
stubblea1300
lubber?1515
awkward1530
unwieldy1530
lubberlike1572
unwieldsome1579
lubberly1580
looby1582
wieldy1588
clumsy1597
ungainly1611
unqueme1611
untowardly1611
clouter-likea1624
hip-shot1642
loobish1648
loobily1655
bumble-arsed1661
clouterly1675
lubbard1679
fumbling1681
sinistrousa1682
maladroit1685
shammockinga1704
ungain1710
splay-footed1716
gawky1759
hobbledehoyish1812
uncouthly1821
nunting1836
shammocky1841
numb1854
awkwardish1860
slummocky?1861
numb-footed1867
gawkish1876
flat-footed1899
brontosaurian1909
shamblya1937
slew-foot1945
ham-footed1960
klutzy1961
dorkus1979
1582 R. Stanyhurst tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis iii. 63 Al wee see the giaunt, with his hole flock lowbylyke hagling.
1679 Earl of Rochester Epigr. Ld. All-pride in Roxburghe Ballads (1883) IV. 567 A plowman's looby meen, face all awry.
1687 Advise to Pestholders ii. 1 in Third Coll. Poems (1689) 21/1 That Looby Duke.
1771 Hist. Sir William Harrington I. xvi. 151 A country squire, of the looby kind.
1830 ‘J. Bee’ Ess. in S. Foote Dram. Wks. I This great, big, overgrown metropolis..like a looby son who has outgrown his stamina.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1903; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
<
n.1377