Lewed

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Archaic term for lacking education or knowledge, and also for being morally base or wicked in conduct ; describing a person of low character who behaves in a vile or sinful manner
2. Old-fashioned word meaning unschooled, uninformed or illiterate ; used in older texts to describe something coarse, immoral or contemptible
3. Having no learning or training, particularly in letters or religious doctrine ; degraded, depraved or morally corrupt in behavior

Etymology: "Lewed" is the past tense and past participle of "lew," a verb that meant to shelter or warm something. Its ancestry runs back to a Proto-Germanic "hlēwaz," meaning "warm" or "lukewarm," and it is related to the Old Norse "hlýr" (warm, mild) and German "lau" (lukewarm). Those words are themselves linked to "lee," the sheltered side of a hill or ship, so the core idea is a spot protected from the wind and therefore comfortably warm. The verb and its forms belong to a family of "lew" words that shows how old and varied this root is. Old English had "hlēowe" as an adverb meaning "warmly," along with compounds such as "ġehlēowe," meaning "warm, sunny, sheltered," and "unhlēowe," meaning "not warm, chill." The sense of shelter survived in these terms long after the adjectives faded.