Lord, Lady and Companion All Come From Bread
Bread is baked dough. Three common English words hide it: lord means loaf-guardian, lady means loaf-kneader, and companion means one who shares bread.
Bread is baked dough, and it built a surprising part of English social vocabulary. *Lord* is Old English *hlafweard*, loaf-guardian; *lady* is *hlæfdige*, loaf-kneader; and *companion* comes from Latin *com* plus *panis*, one you share bread with. Three words for rank and friendship, all resting on who controls and shares the bread.
- Baked dough. *A loaf of bread.*
- Money (slang). *Earning good bread.*
- Breadwinner — the household earner. *The main breadwinner.*
- Breadline — poverty, in Britain. *Living on the breadline.*
- Best thing since sliced bread — a great innovation. *The best thing since sliced bread.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | bread | Fresh bread. |
| Compound | breadwinner | The breadwinner. |
| Related | lord | From loaf-guardian. |
| Related | lady | From loaf-kneader. |
| Related | companion | One who shares bread. |
- The bakery makes bread twice a day.Food.
- Families on the breadline.British: at subsistence level.
- Lord means loaf-guardian in Old English.Etymology.
Words built on bread
- Lord — *hlafweard*, the one who guards the loaf
- Lady — *hlæfdige*, the one who kneads it
- Companion — Latin, one who shares bread with you
- Company — the same root, a group who eat together
- Breadwinner — nineteenth-century, the one who brings it home
Old English *bread*, a piece or morsel, which displaced *hlaf*, loaf, as the general word. *Hlaf* survives inside lord and lady.
Do lord and lady really come from bread?
Yes. Lord is loaf-guardian and lady is loaf-kneader in Old English. Both contain hlaf, the older word for bread.
What does living on the breadline mean?
In Britain, having barely enough to live on. The image is of queuing for free bread.