Lout \Lout\ (lout), v. i. [OE. louten, luten, AS. l[=u]tan; akin to Icel. l[=u]ta, Dan. lude, OHG. l[=u]z[=e]n to lie hid.] To bend; to box; to stoop. [Archaic] --Chaucer. --Longfellow.
He fair the knight saluted, louting low. --Spenser.
Lout \Lout\, n. [Formerly also written lowt.] A clownish, awkward fellow; a bumpkin. --Sir P. Sidney.
Lout \Lout\, v. t. To treat as a lout or fool; to neglect; to disappoint. [Obs.] --Shak.
It has become fashionable to trash the last decade as a time when almost any lout could turn tycoon if he could spell LBO and load a company up with a billion dollars in junk bonds.
To play the title part as an unshaven lout with a violent temper simply diminishes the emotional drama.
He worships Joe, a blustering lout who likes to beat up on his woman Sandy, especially when he's drunk, and that seems to turn her on more than anything else.
"Ethel" and her polyester pals, "Bunni" and "Blanche," we are led to believe, are three good ol' gals who were all married to the same lout.