Middle English, from Old English hlud "noisy; making or emitting noise" (of voices, musical instruments, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *hludaz "heard" (source also of Old Frisian and Old Saxon hlud, Middle Dutch luut, Dutch luid, Old High German hlut, German laut "loud"), from PIE *klutos- (source also of Sanskrit srutah, Greek klytos "heard of, celebrated," Latin inclutus "renowned, famous," Armenian lu "known," Irish cloth "noble, brave," Welsh clod "praise, fame"), suffixed form of root *kleu- "to hear."

Of places, "noisy," from 1590s. Application to colors, garments, etc. ("flashy, showy") is by 1849. Also used colloquially of notably strong or bad smells. Paired with clear (adj.) at least since c. 1650.

c. 1300, "military supremacy, victory in battle or a physical contest," from Anglo-French and Old French victorie (12c.) and directly from Latin victoria "victory," from past participle stem of vincere "to overcome, conquer" (from nasalized form of PIE root *weik- (3) "to fight, conquer"). V.E. ("victory in Europe") and V.J. ("victory in Japan") days in World War II were first used Sept. 2, 1944, by James F. Byrne, then U.S. director of War Mobilization [Washington Post, Sept. 10, 1944].

masc. proper name, from French Louis, from Old French Loois, probably via Medieval Latin Ludovicus, a Latinization of Old High German Hluodowig, literally "famous in war" (cognate with Clovis; for etymology see Ludwig).

As the name of a French gold coin 17c.-18c., short for Louis d'or, from the French kings of that name (originally Louis XIII) pictured on the coins. Louis-Quatorze (1855) refers to styles reminiscent of the time of King Louis XIV of France (1643-1715).

type of prehistoric stone spearpoints, 1943, from Clovis, New Mexico, U.S., near which place they were found. The town is said to have been named for the Frankish king Clovis (Latinized from Frankish Chlodovech, from Germanic masc. proper name *hluda-wigaz "famous in battle," cognate with Ludwig and Louis).

fem. proper name, German, from Old High German Haduwig, a compound of two words both of which mean "strife, struggle." Second element also that of Ludwig.

type of skating jump, 1932, from the name Alois Lutz, "an obscure Austrian skater of the 1920s" [James R. Hines, "Historical Dictionary of Figure Skating," 2011], who is said to have first performed it in 1913. The surname is from a form of Ludwig.