loth

See loath.

loth (comparative lother, superlative lothest)

1. (Britain) Alternative form of loath

   I was loth to return to the office without the Henderson file.

   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “Capitulum Quintum”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book IV, [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786, leaf 62, verso; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034, lines 10–13, page 124:

     I durſt ſaye that of his age ther is not in this land a better knyghte than he is nor of better condycions and lothe to doo ony wronge / and loth to take ony wronge

   • 1614, Ben Jonson, Bartholmew Fayre, Induction:

     If there bee never a Servant-monster i' the Fayre, who can helpe it, he sayes ; nor a nest of Antiques ?   Hee is loth to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like those that beget Tales, Tempests, and such like Drolleries, […]

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: Printed for Nath[aniel] Ponder […], OCLC 228725984; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, OCLC 5190338, page 166:

     Then ſaid Faint-heart, Deliver thy Purſe; but he making no haſte to do it (for he was loth to loſe his Money,) Miſtrust ran up to him, and thruſting his hand into his Pocket, pull'd out thence a bag of Silver.

   • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Peveril of the Peak. [...] In Four Volumes, volume III, Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 2392685, page 82:

     "And thereupon I pledge thee," said the young nobleman, "which on any other argument I were loth to do—thinking of Ned as somewhat the cut of a villain."

   • 1875, Arthur Sullivan (music); W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert (lyrics), Trial by Jury. A Novel and Original Dramatic Cantata, London: Walter Smith, […], OCLC 1064629363, page 15:

     If I to wed the girl am loth / A breach 'twill surely be—

   • 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Alas, So Long!”, in Ballads and Sonnets, London: Ellis and White, […], OCLC 946729536, stanza 2, lines 9–13, pages 297–298:

     Ah! dear one, I've been old so long, / It seems that age is loth to part, / Though days and years have never a song, / And, oh! have they still the art / That warmed the pulses of heart to heart?

   • 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer; Nevill Coghill, transl., “The Pardoner’s Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, →ISBN, page 274:

     And, as it happened, reaching up for a sup, / He took a bottle full of poison up / And drank; and his companion, nothing loth, / Drank from it also, and they perished both.

• The spelling loath is about four times as common as loth in Britain, and about fifty times as common in the United States. Loth had more currency in the US in the 19th century, appearing in Webster’s 1828 dictionary, but not the 1913 edition.
• The word should not be confused with the related verb loathe.

• lothly
• lothness

From German Loth (obsolete), Lot, later also from Dutch lood, both specific usages of the word for ‘lead’.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ləʊt/

loth (plural loths)

1. (now historical) A measure of weight formerly used in Germany, the Netherlands and some other parts of Europe, equivalent to half of the local ounce. [from 17th c.]
   • 1999, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, translating Paracelsus, Opus Paramirum, in Essential Readings, North Atlantic Books 1999, p. 100:

     It is not a matter of body but of virtues, which is why the fifth essence was invented, of which one loth is superior to the twenty pounds of the body from which it was extracted.

• HTOL, Holt, holt

From Old English lāþ (“hateful”)

loth

1. hateful, evil
2. reluctant

loth f (genitive singular lotha, plural lothan)

1. foal
2. filly