Liverpool Street. After Lord Liverpool, one of the most popular members of the Ministry at the accession of George IV. There is another Liverpool Street named after him at King’s Cross.
Liverymen. Freemen of the city of London who on great special occasions wear the distinctive livery of the companies to which they belong.
Llandaff. Properly Llan Taff, the church on the Taff.
Lloyd’s. After Edward Lloyd, a coffee-house keeper in Abchurch Lane, whose premises were first used by merchants and shippers as a sort of club.
LL Whisky. That distilled by Messrs Kinahan of Dublin. When the Duke of Richmond was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland between 1807 and 1813 he in the former year sent to various distilleries for samples of good whisky, and preferring that tendered by Messrs Kinahan, he ordered a large vat of the same quality to be exclusively reserved for him. This vat had LL painted on it, denoting “Lord-Lieutenant Whisky.”
Lo. An American term for an Indian. This originated in Pope’s “Essay on Man,” a couplet of which reads:
“Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds or hears Him in the wind.”
Loaded. An Americanism for intoxicated or “primed.”
Loafer. This word is neither Dutch nor German, as generally stated; it is distinctly Spanish-American. The early settlers of Mexico and Texas gave the name of gallofo to a vagrant, who, like the lazzaroni of Naples, hung about the churches begging for alms. From the western states this word travelled to New York, and in the process became changed into “Loafer.”