loof

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• Rhymes: -uːf

Inherited from Middle English love, lufe, lofe, luf (“palm of the hand”), from Old Norse lōfi, from Proto-Germanic *lōfô (“palm of the hand; paw; oar blade, paddle”).

loof (plural loofs)

1. (anatomy, now chiefly dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) The palm of the hand.
2. (anatomy, now chiefly dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) The hand, especially, the hand outspread and upturned.

Inherited from Middle English lof (“a contrivance for altering a ship's course, paddle, oar”), from Middle Dutch loef (“an oar or paddle used in steering”), ultimately of the same origin as Etymology 1. Compare luff.

loof (plural loofs)

1. (nautical, obsolete) A contrivance (apparently a paddle or an oar) used for altering the course of a ship.
2. (nautical) The after part of the bow of a ship where the sides begin to curve.

From Egyptian Arabic لُوف (lūf).

loof (uncountable)

1. The spongy fibers of the fruit of a cucurbitaceous plant (Luffa aegyptiaca).

• loofah

• Fool, floo, fool, Olof

• IPA^(key): /loːf/
• Hyphenation: loof
• Rhymes: -oːf

From Middle Dutch lôof, from Old Dutch *lōf, from Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą.

loof n (uncountable)

1. foliage

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

loof

1. inflection of loven:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

From Old Dutch *lōf, from Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą.

lôof n

1. leaf
2. foliage, leaves

• Dutch: loof
  • Afrikaans: lof
• Limburgish: louf

• “loof”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “loof (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

loof

1. alternative form of lof (“loaf”)