2160: lady & lord Nov 13, 2020
These days, ‘lady’ connotes nobility or otherwise upper class, well-mannered, or even just particularly feminine qualities in a woman, but it originally meant ‘bread-kneader’. That said, even if baking bread is not necessarily what would be thought of with a ‘lady’ today, even in Old English ‘hlǣfdīge’ (loaf-kneader) nevertheless denoted a woman to whom homage and fealty was paid, as in the wife of a lord. This word was also strongly associated with the Virgin Mary, and hence many plants and also ‘ladybugs’ are named from this source. The first half of the word ‘hlǣf-‘ is associated with ‘loaf’ and ‘dīge’ while indicating action, is related to ‘dough’ and also ‘dairy’. The reduction now to ‘lady’ is not so odd considering the there was a common assimilation of the suffix ‘-ig’ in Old English to ‘-y’ in Modern English, but the -f- did not drop out until the 14th century, around the time when the word had gained connotations to higher society and chivalry. Indeed, it was not a form of address for a normal woman until the late 19th century. ‘Lord’ comes from ‘hlafweard’ meaning similarly ‘loaf-guard’, related to ‘warden’, though keep in mind this word was not so common until the Middle Ages before which ‘dryhten‘ was prefered. Moreover, tying this all together, the Old English for ‘servant’ was ‘hlafæta’ or literally ‘loaf'-eater’.
2159: 'Frau', Meaning 'Lord' (*frawjǭ) Nov 12, 2020
Yesterday’s post discussed the odd pronunciation of ‘women’, but consider that most Germanic languages do not use this word. The German ‘Frau’, Dutch ‘vrouw’, Swedish ‘fru’ and so on all come from the same root *frawjǭ meaning ‘lady’, as in the female form of ‘lord’. More on this word tomorrow. Indeed, this root word referred to nobility but also normal women not unlike ‘lady’ does today. The Old English ‘frōwe’ for instance was connected to the OE ‘frēa’ meaning ‘lord’ or also ‘husband’. It is also related to the Russian пра́вый (právyj) meaning ‘right’ (also connected to words for a judge or a master), related to пра́вда (pravda), as in the infamous newspaper meaning ‘truth’. This Russian word is also related to the Latin ‘prōvincia’ (territory; dominion) and might help to elucidate why the connection to lordship exists.