Mysteries of vernacular: Lady - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel

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Why do we call women ladies? Well, etymologically-speaking, the word comes from the Old English words for hlaf (bread) and daege (maid), which, combined, mean the female head of the household and eventually indicated high social standing. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel follow the word to its contemporary position simply describing a female.

Lesson by Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel, animation by Jessica Oreck.

Mysteries of vernacular:

Lady,

woman.

Lady is tied to a number of words

that seem at first glance

etymologically unrelated.

She traces her roots back

to the Old English words hlaf,

which referred to a loaf of bread

and is the direct ancestor of our modern word loaf,

and daege,

which meant maid

and is the root of our word dairy,

the place where the dairymaid works.

Together, hlaf and daege became hlafdige,

literally loaf maid,

or, more figuratively, kneader of bread.

As early as the ninth century,

hlafdige was the name for a mistress of servants,

or the female head of the household.

The Old English word for a male head of household

was hlafweard,

a compound of hlaf, loaf,

and weard,

which meant keeper

and is the word of modern words

like ward and warden.

Both hlafweard, the breadwinner,

and hlafdige, the bread kneader,

came to be titles of respect,

referring to citizens of higher social standing.

Through a process known as syncopation,

both words lost their internal sounds

to become lord and lady, respectively.

Though still an expression of courtesy,

lady has since moved

down the ladder of social standing

and is now often used

to mean simply a woman.