Meanings
plural lurdanes · alternative lordane · alternative lourdan · alternative lurdan · alternative lurden
- obsoleteA lazy, stupid person; a sluggard.
Remember, father Glover, your trade keeps your eyes and hands close employed, and must have your heedful care, even if this lazy lurdane wrought at it, which you know yourself he seldom does.
1828, Walter Scott, The Fair Maid of Perth1 more example
I have also seene some excellent Lourdans, or Clownes attired in their ordinary worky-day clothes, and with a common homely countenance, affoord us all the pleasure that may be had from their art[…].
1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 10, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
Origin
- Middle Frenchlourdin“dullard”
- Englishlurdane
From Middle French lourdin (“dullard”), from lourd (“heavy”). The Puritan, Rev Joseph Caryl, commenting in 1666 in volume 12 of his Exposition upon the Book of Job, page 363, on Job 39:9, describing the Unicorn or Wild Ox, says that the Unicorn does no work but expects no wages nor reward from you, "which may be a reproof to those men, who are very unwilling to serve others, yet are very willing to abide by their Crib; they like it well to eat and drink upon you, as long as you will, and possibly whether you will or no, but will not do a stroke of work; such as one we call proverbably a Lurdane, from the lazy Danes, who long since Lording it in this Kingdom, would eat and drink in a good well-stored house, but refused to labour."
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Cite this entry
lurdane. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lurdane
“lurdane.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lurdane. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lurdane,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lurdane.
Source: lurdane on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.