lew

• IPA^(key): /luː/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (dated) IPA^(key): /ljuː/

A 1266 gold écu issued by Louis IX.

A 1498 gold écu issued by Louis XII.

From corruption of French louis, from Louis,[1] presumably Louis IX or Louis XI, who issued gold écus.

lew (plural lews or lewis or leois)

1. (Scotland, obsolete) A French gold coin circulated in 15th-century Scotland.
   • 1467, Scottish Acts of James III, Vol. II, p. 88:

     ...þe Ingliss noble, henry, ande Eduarde w^t þe ross, þe franche crowne, þe salute þe lewe and þe Ridar sall haif courss in þis realme...

• lewe

From Middle English lew, lewe, from Old English hlēow, hlēowe (“warm, sunny, sheltered”), from Proto-Germanic *hlewaz, *hliwjaz, *hlēwaz (“warm, lukewarm”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱal(w)e-, *ḱlēw- (“warm, hot”). Cognate with Old Norse hlýr (“warm, mild”), ( > Danish ly (“lukewarm”)), hlær, German lau, which are themselves akin to Old Norse hlé (“lee”), Danish læ (“shelter”). Compare lee.[2]

• lue, loo, looe, lee, loo

lew (comparative lewer, superlative lewest)

1. (obsolete) Sunny; warm.
2. (dialect) Lukewarm, tepid.
3. (dialect) Alee: protected from the wind.
   • 1674, J. Ray, "South & East Countrey Words" in Coll. Eng. Words, p. 70:

     Lee or Lew, Calm, under the wind. Suss.

   • 1892, H. C. O'Neill, Devonshire Idyls, page 7:

     His house... was ‘loo’ from the cold north winds.

Now chiefly Southern Scottish and Northern English.

Sheep sheltering beside a stone wall. Shepherds formerly raised lews—structures of thatch and sticks—for the same purpose.

lew (plural lews)

1. (now Scotland) Warmth, heat.
   • 1605, J. Sylvester translating G. de S. Du Bartas as Deuine Weekes & Wks, Book i, Ch. iv, p. 136:

     To th' end a fruitfull lew
     May euerie Climate in his time renew.

2. (dialect) A shelter from the wind, particularly temporary structures raised by shepherds to protect their flocks.
   • 1825, J. Jennings, Observ. Dial. W. Eng., p. 52:

     Lew, shelter; defence from storms or wind.

   • 1887, W. D. Parish & al., Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect:

     Lew, a thatched hurdle, supported by sticks, and set up in a field to screen lambs, etc. from the wind.

• house-lew

lew (third-person singular simple present lews, present participle lewing, simple past and past participle lewed)

1. (transitive) To make warm or lukewarm.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To become warm.
3. (transitive) To shelter from the wind.
   • 1887, W. D. Parish & al., Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect:

     Lew... Those trees will lew the house when they're up-grown.

Uncertain, but compare Old English ġelewed (“weakness, infirmity”) and limlǣweo (“limb-weak, lame”).[3] Possibly related to Proto-Germanic *laiwą (“damage”); compare Old Norse læ (“venom, bane”).

lew (comparative more lew, superlative most lew)

1. Weak.
2. Sickly-looking, pale, wan.
   • c. 1325, "Old Age" in T. Wright & al.'s 1845 Reliquiae Antiquae, Vol. II, p. 211:

     Mi bodi wexit lewe.

Variant of lo (q.v.).[4]

lew

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of lo or look: a cry to look at something.
   • 15th c., “Processus Noe cum filiis [Noah and the Ark]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 38, lines 507–510:

     hence bot a litill / she commys, lew, lew! / shy bryngys in her bill / som novels new; / Behald! / It is of an olif tre / A branch, thynkys me.

     [She is] not far, she comes, look, look! She brings in her bill something new—behold! It is an olive tree's branch, I think.

• looky-loo

Variant of lue (q.v.).[5]

lew (third-person singular simple present lews, present participle lewing, simple past and past participle lewed)

1. (mining, dialect, transitive) Alternative form of lue: to sift, particularly while mining tin or silver.
   • 1674, John Ray, A Collection of English Words, Not Generally Used, page 122:

     Cornwall... The fine [sc. tin] is lewed in a fine sierce.

• lew in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
• “lew”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• we'l

From Proto-Brythonic *llew, from Latin leō.

• (Revived Middle Cornish) IPA^(key): [lɛˑʊ]
• (Revived Late Cornish) IPA^(key): [leˑʊ]

lew m (plural lewyon)

1. lion

lēw

1. Romanization of 𐌻𐌴𐍅

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *lьvъ. Cognates include Polish lew and Czech lev.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛf/
• Hyphenation: lew

lew m animal (female equivalent lwica or lewka or lewina, diminutive lewk)

1. lion (Panthera leo)

• “lew”, in Internetowi Słowôrz Kaszëbsczégò Jãzëka [Internet Dictionary of the Kashubian Language], Fundacja Kaszuby, 2022
• Eùgeniusz Gòłąbk (2011) “lew”, in Słownik Polsko-Kaszubski / Słowôrz Pòlskò-Kaszëbsczi‎

• IPA^(key): /lɛf/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛf
• Syllabification: lew
• Homophone: Lew

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *lьvъ, probably via a Germanic language, from Latin leō. Doublet of Leon.

lew m animal (female equivalent lwica, diminutive lewek, augmentative lwisko)

1. lion
2. (heraldry) lion

Borrowed from Bulgarian лев (lev), from Proto-Slavic *lьvъ.

lew m animal

1. lev (currency of Bulgaria)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

lew f

1. genitive plural of lewa

• lew in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• lew in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from Dutch leeuw.

lew

1. lion

lew

1. Soft mutation of llew.

From Proto-Indo-European *leb-, cognate with Persian لب (lab), English lip etc.

lew

1. (anatomy) lip