Forms: 4 les, lasce, 4–7 lasse, 6 Sc. lase, 6– lass. [ME. lasce, las(se; perh. a. prehistoric ON. *lasqa, wk. fem. of *lasqar unmarried: cf. MSw. lösk kona unmarried woman.
The adj means primarily ‘free from ties’; hence the above sense and those of ‘unoccupied,’ ‘having no fixed abode,’ which are also recorded in MSw. The Icel. lǫsk-r occurs only in the sense ‘idle, weak.’
The phonology of the Eng. word, according to the above conjecture, is somewhat difficult; but the same sound-change occurs in other northern forms, as ass for *ask (ashes), asse for ask v., buss for busk.]
1. A girl.
In northern and north midland dialects the ordinary word; in the southern counties it has little or no popular currency.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2608. Til abram þan dame sare said, ‘Yone lasce … For-þi þat sco has barn o þe, Als in despit sco haldes me.’
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 39. Bifor him com a fair yong lasce That Herodias dohter was.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, Baptista, 632. Medyature als wes he, betwene ws & þe trinite. ȝet he, þat of sic uertu wes, wes gefine til a lurdan las.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3746. If any consaue þar a knaf þan kepis him his modire … Vij ȝere with-in oure-selfe…. And be scho lyuir of a lasse scho lengis in our burȝe.
a. 1529. Skelton, Col. Cloute, 426. The money for theyr masses spent among wanton lasses.
a. 1592. Greene, Geo. a Greene (1599), D 2. He that is olde, and marries with a lasse, Lies but at home and prooues himselfe an asse.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 156. This is the prettiest Low-borne Lasse, that euer Ran on the greene-sord.
1645. Waller, Battle of Summer-Isl., II. 47. A goodly theater, where rocks are round; With revererd age, and lovely lasses crown’d.
1672. Westminster Drollery, II. 80. Come lasses and lads Take leave of your Dadds And away to the May-pole hey.
1678. Ray, Prov. (ed. 2), 80. The lass i’ the red petticoat shall pay for all … meaning … a wife with a good portion.
1722. De Foe, Moll Flanders (1840), 7. Pray which is the little lass that is to be a gentlewoman?
1777. Sheridan, Sch. Scandal, III. ii. (song), Let the toast pass, Drink to the lass.
1786. Har’st Rig, 55. The Highland lasses raise the song, In music wild, and sweet, and strong.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, VIII. 38. But one there is, the loveliest of them all, Some sweet lass of the valley.
1843. Bethune, Scott. Peasant’s Fire-side, 49. You are a good and warm-hearted lass, Jenny.
b. spec. A maid-servant. Sc. and north. dial.
1788. Marshall, Yorksh., II. 339. Lass, the vulgar name of a maid-servant.
1793. Statist. Acc. Scot., VIII. 350. As far as the lass has cash or credit, to procure braws, she will, step by step, follow hard after what she deems grand and fine in her betters.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xlv. It will may be no be sae weel to speak about it while that lang-lugged limmer o’ a lass is gaun flisking in and out o’ the room.
c. Applied playfully as a form of address to a mare or a bitch. Cf. GIRL sb. 2 ¶.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, III. IV. viii. 332. ‘Art hurt, lass?’ asked Dick, as she [Bess] shook herself and slightly shivered.
1837. Dickens, Pickwick, xix. ‘Hi, Juno, lass—hi, old girl; down, Daph, down,’ said Wardle, caressing the dogs.
2. A lady-love, a sweetheart. Also transf.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. iii. 14. And eke that Lady, his faire lovely lasse.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., V. iii. 17. It was a Louer, and his lasse.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 335. The youthfull Bull … Forsakes his Food, and pining for the Lass, Is joyless of the Grove.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 36. There might ye see … the shepherd and his lass.
1788. R. Galloway, Poems, 90. The lads upon their lasses ca’d To see gin they were dress’d.
3. attrib. and Comb., as lass-quean (dial.); † lass-lorn a., forsaken by one’s lass or sweetheart.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 68. Thy broome groues; Whose shadow the dismissed Batchelor loues, Being lasse-lorne.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxii. Ask the lass quean there, if it isna a fundamental rule in my household.
