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Louche ultimately comes from the Latin word luscus, meaning "blind in one eye" or "having poor sight." This Latin term gave rise to the French louche, meaning "squinting" or "cross-eyed." The French gave their term a figurative sense as well, taking that squinty look to mean "shady" or "devious." English speakers didn't see the need for the sight-impaired uses when they borrowed the term in the 19th century, but they kept the figurative one. The word is still quite visible today and is used to describe both people and things of questionable repute.
Synonyms
Examples of louche in a Sentence
Christina Catherine Martinez, Los Angeles Times, 30 Jan. 2023
So an ocean of booze (with its attendant narcotics, violence and human trafficking) flows every evening on the louche fringes of Soho.
—Dallas News, 22 Sep. 2022
Berlin, where painters and photographers like Christian Schad and Otto Dix made a virtue of hard surfaces and louche life.
—Jason Farago, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2022
Wryly titled Happiness Not Included, Soft Cell’s new set mirrors the mix of darkly sardonic lyrics and electro-minimalist music that made their 1981 debut album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, a louche classic.
—Jim Farber, Vulture, 5 May 2022
See all Example Sentences for louche 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'louche.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Louche.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/louche. Accessed 30 Jun. 2024.
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