Word of the Week: November 13, 2000
Lady Loafers

"Lord" and "Lady" seem quite high and mighty titles, but lords and ladies have etymologically humble roots. Lady is from Old English hlaefdige, meaning "kneader of the dough." You can see that loaf is derived from hlaef and dough is derived from the second element. Lord, on the other hand, is derived from hlafweard, which means "keeper of the loaf." That second part gives us words with ward in them, such as warden. So if you
think lords and ladies loaf around in their fancy houses,
you are right--sort of.

Words of the Week are written by Dr. Jacques A. Bailly.