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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1963 (DOST Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Lowp, Loup, n.¹ Also: lowpe, loupe; and Lope. [ON. hlaup (Norw. laup, Sw. löp, Da. løb): the corresp. late ME. form is lope (see Lope n.). The distribution of this form in mod. Sc. and Eng. dialects is as for Lowp v.]

1. An act of leaping or jumping; a leap or jump, a bound or spring. 1375 Barb. vi. 638.
Till thame that faucht vith his man A lowp richt lychtly maid he than 1494 Loutfut MS. 130 a.
Batellouris suld be excercit in leping. … And the loupe of the self may be caus of the grettar straik 1513 Doug. xii. v. 169.
Sum in haist with a lowp or a swak Thame self vpcastis on the horsys bak 1531 Bell. Boece I. xliii.
The … peple settis … cawdrounis … at the cheik of the lin … Quhen the salmondis faillis thair loup thay fall callour in the said caldrounis 1535 Stewart 57478.
The Douglas said, he suld haif gart him leip Thre lowpis in ane 15.. Lichtoun Dreme 24 (B).
I … Syne lap thre lowpis and I was haill and feir 1587 Carmichael Etym. 27.
Saltus, parke, lowpe 1635 Dickson Wr. 185.
If we run fast to be at it, Christ pulls us in his arms, and lifts us there at a loup 1667 Highland P. II. 49.
Allan … escaped naked without cloathes or armes be a loup that he gave desperatlie over a most illfavoured lyn 1685 Sinclair Satan's Invisible World 211.
At which she made three several loups upward increasing gradually, till her feet were as high as his breast

2. In place-names, of places where, traditionally, one has leapt or jumped, as Maidens loup, Wallace loup.So also in many later recorded Sc. place-names. Cf. the similar use of leap n. in many place-names recorded in OE., ME. and mod. Eng. 1629 Misc. Spottisw. C. II. 47.
Their [witches'] meeting with the devil … at a place called the Maiden's loup 1638 Adamson Muses Thr. 136.
Let's passe the bridge be Wallace loup