An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Laut

by Friedrich Kluge

Laut, masculine, ‘sound,’ from Middle High German lût, masculine, ‘sound, tone, voice, cry.’ — laut, preposition with genitive, is a form of the substantive; literally ‘according to the sound of, &c.; Middle High German nâch lût, e.g. der briefe, ‘according to the letters,’ nâch lût des artikels, ‘according to the article,’ then also simply lût des artikels. Originally used only of the contents of documents read out.