Loan. An Americanism for “lend.”
Lock-out. When artisans have struck for an advance of wages, and afterwards decide to return to work on the former scale, the masters retaliate by shutting them out of the works altogether and employing fresh hands from elsewhere.
Lock, Stock, and Barrel. A sportsman’s phrase for the whole of a thing, in allusion to the three parts of a gun. In the modern sense it is used to imply the complete discomfiture of an adversary in argument or of one utterly outwitted in his schemes.
Loco-Focos. The American term for lucifer matches. By a patent dated 16th April 1834 John Marck, a storekeeper of Park Row, New York, brought out a self-lighting or friction cigar, which he called a Loco-Foco. The first portion of this name was taken from the newly introduced locomotive, which people generally thought to mean self-moving; the latter half was a euphonism of his own. When friction or self-firing matches came in they received the same designation. The Democratic Party of the United States received the name of “Loco-Focos” from the circumstance that at a great general meeting held in Tammany Hall to confirm the nomination of Gideon Lee as the Democratic candidate for Congress, a tumult arose, and the lights were turned out; whereupon the adherents of the candidate, who had provided themselves with loco-focos and candles, relighted the hall in a moment.
Loft. An Americanism for storey. In the United States it is usual to say a house contains so many “lofts” instead of storeys.
Logger. One employed in the North American forests cutting down trees and sawing them into logs.
Loggerhead. A dull, stupid fellow with no more sense in his head than a “logger” or lumberman. These loggers often quarrel for no visible cause; hence the expression to be “at loggerheads.”
Log-rolling. Primarily a political term descriptive of mutual co-operation on the part of individuals for the furtherance of a general cause. It means: “You help me and I’ll help you”; “If your party further my Bill through Congress I’ll pledge my party to push yours along too.” The expression obtains also in a social and journalistic sense: “If I propose a testimonial for you I expect you to do the same for me”; “I’ll write you up in the Press if you engage to return the compliment.” For the origin of the term we must look to the lumber regions of the state of Maine, where the loggers of different camps assist one another by turns to roll their logs down to the river.
Lollards. Originally an association of pious people in Germany at the commencement of the thirteenth century banded together for the purpose of burying the dead. They were so called on account of the solemn dirges they sang, from the Low German lollen, to sing softly. After a time the same title was assumed by the followers of one Walter Goilard, a dissolute priest, who was burned for heresy at Cologne in 1322. The Wycliffites assumed this name still later, and some of these it must have been who were imprisoned in the “Lollards’ Tower,” Lambeth Palace.
Lombard Street. From the Jews of Lombardy, who here set up banks and money-lending establishments, at the instance of Pope Gregory IX., as a means of assisting the people of England to raise money for the payment of their taxes early in the thirteenth century.