leut

Dutch

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /løːt/
Audio: (file)
Hyphenation: leut
Rhymes: -øːt

Etymology 1

Uncertain. Cognate with West Flemish leute (“fun, pleasure, enjoyment”). The word may originally meant "deception," in which case it could be related to Frankish *leut (“deceptive, deceitful”). For the semantic development from "deception" to "fun, pleasure" compare also pret, which is related to words pertaining to deceit and boastfulness (English prat).

The sense "coffee" (first attested 1897) is secondary to the sense "fun, pleasure" (first attested 1634). While some etymologists regard the -leut in words such as theeleut and koffieleut to be identical to this word, this is improbable for a number of reasons; more at Etymology 2 below and confer the cited references.^[1]^[2]

Noun

leut m (uncountable, no diminutive)

(colloquial) fun, pleasure
(colloquial, Netherlands) coffee
Synonym: koffie

Etymology 2

Sometimes related to Etymology 1 above, based on the fact that the compound koffieleut is exceedingly common, but the usage of leut, first attested in the mid-17th century in reference to drunkards (droncke-letten, droncke luijte) vastly predates the widespread usage of koffieleut (first attested 1897) specifically. (Note that these early forms of words pertaining to drinking diverge significantly from the early spellings of leut in the sense of "pleasure".)

The origin of leut (also lutte in Flanders) in the sense of "frequent drinker of a certain beverage" is not entirely clear, but seems to be identical to Southern Dutch lut, lutte, both meaning "stupid or naive woman". Compare marginally attested Flemish compounds such as bierlutte, zattelutte, dronkelutte, jeneverlutte and so forth (more in source cited). Southern Dutch lutten (“to suck, to drink”) (cognate to German lutschen) has also been adduced in this context.^[3]

Noun

leut m (plural leuten, diminutive leutje n)

(chiefly in compounds) frequent drinker of a certain beverage

Derived terms

References

^ van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “leut¹”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute
^ van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “leut²”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute
^ van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “leut³”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Italian leuto.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /lěut/
Hyphenation: le‧ut

Noun

lèut m inan (Cyrillic spelling лѐут)

lute (stringed instrument)
Synonyms: làuta, lútnja

Declension

Declension of *leut*
	singular	plural
nominative	lèut	leuti
genitive	leuta	leuta
dative	leutu	leutima
accusative	leut	leute
vocative	leute	leuti
locative	leutu	leutima
instrumental	leutom	leutima

[1] van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “leut¹”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

[2] van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “leut²”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

[3] van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “leut³”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

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