The story
- Proto-Indo-European*lewH-?
- Proto-Germanic*lūs
- Proto-West Germanic*lūs
- Old Englishlūs
- Middle Englishlous
- English todaylouse
From Middle English lous, lows, lowse, from Old English lūs, from Proto-West Germanic *lūs, from Proto-Germanic *lūs, from Proto-Indo-European *lewH-. Cognate with West Frisian lûs, Dutch luis, German Low German Luus, German Laus, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish lus, Faroese and Icelandic lús; also Welsh llau (“lice”), Tocharian B luwo, maybe Sanskrit यूका (yūkā).
Words from the same roots
Proto-Indo-European*lewH- all →
wanderlustlornassoillyo-unloose
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.