English
lady
Lady comes from Middle English lady, from Old English hlǣfdīġe ‘mistress of a household’, from hlāf ‘bread’ + dǣġe ‘kneader’, ultimately from PIE *dʰeyǵʰ- ‘to knead’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeyǵʰ-‘to knead’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*daigijǭ‘kneader’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150dǣġe‘female servant; kneader’
- Old English, derivedc. 450–1150hlǣfdīġe‘mistress of a household’literally ‘bread-kneader’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lady‘a lady’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeyǵʰ-‘to knead’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*daigijǭ‘kneader’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150dǣġe‘female servant; kneader’
- Old English, derivedc. 450–1150hlǣfdīġe‘mistress of a household’literally ‘bread-kneader’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lady‘a lady’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595same form
Earliest quotation: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet: “It is my Lady, O it is my Loue,…”
The story
From Middle English lady, laddy, lafdi, lavedi, from Old English hlǣfdīġe (“mistress of a household, wife of a lord, lady”, literally “bread-kneader”), from hlāf (‘bread, loaf’) + dǣġe (‘kneader’), related to Old English dǣġe (‘maker of dough’) (whence dey (‘dairymaid’)). Unrelated to lad.
Linked words
pairs
- lady and paradise both from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- ‘to knead’
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- ‘to knead’
figure, fiction, dairy, dough, faint, fictitious, effigy, feign, figment, feint, 26 more
through Old English dǣġe ‘female servant’
Today it means
noun The mistress of a household.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- / lady