Etymology

aloof

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Today it means: At or from a distance, but within view, or at a small distance; apart; away. Full definition →

Middle English loof
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The story

  1. Middle English · derived fromloof“weather gage, windward direction”
  2. English todayaloof

From Middle English loof (“weather gage, windward direction”), probably from Middle Dutch (Compare Dutch loef (“the weather side of a ship”)), originally a nautical order to keep the ship's head to the wind, thus to stay clear of a lee-shore or some other quarter, hence the figurative sense of "at a distance, apart".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.