Primary
''louver'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260220114507-00-⌔
louver - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
louver (plural louvers)
- A type of turret on the roof of certain medieval buildings designed to allow ventilation or the admission of light. [from 14th c.]
- ✤ But darknesse dred and daily night did hover/Through all the inner parts, wherein they dwelt;/Ne lightned was with window, nor with lover,/But with continuall candle-light […].1
- (chiefly in the plural) A series of sloping overlapping slats or boards which admit air and light but exclude rain etc. [from 16th c.]
- Any of a system of slits, as in the hood of an automobile, for ventilation.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English lover, from Old French lovier, lover (“skylight”), from Medieval Latin ﹡lōdārium (attested as lōvārium), extension of lōdium, of unclear origin, but probably of Germanic origin and related to Frankish ﹡laubijā (“shelter”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) enPR: lo͞oʹvə, IPA: /ˈluːvə/
- Audio (Southern England): 🔊
- (General American) enPR: lo͞oʹvər, IPA: /ˈluːvɚ/
- Rhymes: -uːvə(ɹ)
Printed 2026-06-28.
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Link to original Footnotes
1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: ↩
Secondary
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