Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LEWD, a.² [Sax. læwed, lewd. This seems to be a contracted word, and either from the root of laical, lay, or from the Sax. leod, G. leute, people, which seems to be from the same root as the foregoing word, like L. gens, from geno.]

Lay; laical; not clerical. [Obs.] – Davies.