Lousy

The only way I have ever really used the word 'lousy' was to describe how I was feeling. If I'm sick and someone ask how I'm doing I often say 'I'm feeling lousy.' I also pronounce it with more of an 'ow' sound in the centre, making it sound good and whiny. (I actually took a class a few years ago called The History Of The English Language and part of that was to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet which is used to show how things are pronounced, mind you I have forgotten it all by now.) I only just realised, by reading a book with the word in it used another way, that it stems from the idea of 'lice'. To be 'lousy' is to be infested with lice and therefore would probably be pronounced like 'louse' with an 'e' sound at the end. I feel a little dumb for not knowing that until this point in my life.