Meaning

adjective characterized by or producing sound of great volume or intensity

adjective tastelessly showy

adjective used chiefly as a direction or description in music

originFrom Middle English loude, loud, lud, from Old English hlūd (“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlūd, from Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz, *hlūþaz (“heard”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlewtos (“heard, famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). More at listen. Cognates Akin to Scots loud, lowd (“loud”), Swedish ljud, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0