Etymology Dictionary

ALOOF,  away, at a distance.  (Dutch.)   1. Spelt aloofe in Surrey's Virgil, bk. iv; aloufe in Sir T. More's Works, p. 759 g.   The latter says 'But surely this anker lyeth too farre aloufe from thys shyppe, and hath neuer a cable to fasten her to it.'   This suggests a nautical origin for the phrase.   2. The diphthong ou signifies the ou in soup, and is pronounced like the Du. oe, so that louf at once suggests Du. loef, and as many nautical terms are borrowed from that language, we may the more readily accept this.   Cf. E. sloop from Du. sloep.   3. The prefix a- stands for on, by analogy with a large number of other words, such as abed, afoot, asleep, aground; so that aloof is for on loof, and had originally the same sense as the equivalent Du. phrase te loef, i.e. to windward.   Compare also loef houden, to keep the luff or weather-gage; de loef afwinnen, to gain the luff, &c.   So, too, Danish holde luven, to keep the luff or the wind; have luven, to have the weather-gage; tage luven fra en, to take the luff from one, to get to windward of one.   Our phrase 'to hold aloof' is equivalent to the Du. loef houden (Dan. holde luven), and signifies lit. 'to keep to the windward.'   ¶ The tendency of the ship being to drift on to the leeward vessel or object, the steersman can only hold aloof (i.e. keep or remain so) by keeping the head of the ship away.   Hence to hold aloof came to signify, generally, to keep away from, or not to approach.   The quotation from Sir T. More furnishes a good example.   He is speaking of a ship which has drifted to leeward of its anchorage, so that the said place of anchorage lies 'too farre aloufe,' i.e. too much to windward; so that the ship cannot easily return to it.   Similar phrases occur in Swedish; so that the term is of Scandinavian as well as of Dutch use; but it came to us from the Dutch more immediately.   See further under Luff.