LOÓN, the largest town of the province of Bohol, island of Bohol, Philippine Islands, on the extreme W. coast. Pop. (1903) 18,114. Loón is picturesquely situated on the W. slope of a hill, and is reached from the sea by steps cut in the rocks. The harbour is in a sheltered bay on the N. side of the town. The cultivation of coco-nuts, coffee, cocoa, maguey, tobacco, cotton and Indian corn, and the raising of livestock are the principal industries; there is also considerable commerce and some manufacturing. The language is chiefly Bohol-Visayan.
LOOP. (1) A curve or bend, particularly a bend in a string, rope, &c., formed by doubling back one part so as to leave an opening; similarly a ring of metal or other material leaving an aperture. (2) In architecture or fortification, “loop,” more usually in the form “loophole,” is an opening in the wall of a building, very narrow on the outside and splayed within, from which arrows or darts might be discharged on an enemy, or through which light might be admitted. They are often in the form of a cross, and generally have round holes at the ends (see [Oillets]). (3) The word is also a term in iron and steel manufacturing for a mass of metal ready for hammering or rolling, a “bloom.”
This last word is represented in French by loupe, from which it is probably adapted. The earlier English form was also loupe, and it was also applied to precious stones which were of inferior brilliancy; the same also appears in French. Of the word in its two first meanings, a bend or circle in a line of string, metal, rails, &c., and “loophole,” the derivation is uncertain. Skeat takes the word in both meanings to be the same and to be of Scandinavian origin, the old Norwegian hlaup, a leap, being the direct source. The base is the Teutonic hlaufan, to run, to leap, German laufen. The New English Dictionary considers the Swedish example, löp-knut, “running knot,” and others given by Skeat in support of his derivation to be Germanisms, and also that the pronunciation of the word would have been lowp rather than lūp. “Loop” in meaning (2) “loophole” is also taken to be a different word, and is derived from Dutch luipen, to peer, watch. In modern Dutch the word for a narrow opening is gluip.
LOOSESTRIFE, in botany, the common name of Lysimachia vulgaris, an erect plant, 2 to 4 ft. high, common on river banks in England; the branched stem bears tapering leaves in pairs or whorls, and terminal panicles of rather large deep yellow flowers. It is a member of the primrose family. L. nemorum, yellow pimpernel, or wood loosestrife, a low-growing plant with slender spreading stem, and somewhat similar yellow flowers standing singly in the leaf-axils, is frequent in copses. L. Nummularia is the well-known creeping jenny or money-wort, a larger plant with widely creeping stem, pairs of shining leaves and large solitary yellow flowers; it is found on banks of rivers and damp woods, and is a common rockery plant. Purple loosestrife, Lythrum Salicaria, belongs to a different family, Lythraceae. It is a handsome plant growing 2 to 6 ft. high on river banks and ditches, with a branched angled stem bearing whorls of narrow pointed stalkless leaves and ending in tall tapering spikes of beautiful rose-purple flowers. The flowers are trimorphic, that is to say, exist in three forms which differ in the relative length of the styles and stamens and are known as long-styled, mid-styled and short-styled forms respectively; the size and colour of the pollen also differ. These differences play an important part in the pollination of the flower.
LOOT, plunder or spoil taken from an enemy in war, especially the indiscriminate plunder taken by the victor after the capture of a city. The word came into English from India. It is adapted from the Hindi lūt, which is either from Sanskrit luṇṭ, to rob, plunder, or lōtra, lōptra, booty.