lord

Origin: From and lorde (attested from the 15th century), from earlier (14th century) lourde and other variants which dropped the intervocalic consonant of earlier lowerd, louerd, loverd, laford, and lhoaverd; from < hlāfweard, a compound of bread + guardian; see loaf and ward. The term was already being applied broadly prior to the literary development of Old English and was influenced by its common use to translate Latin dominus. Compare , preserving a separate vowel development (from northern/Scottish , laverd), the Old English compound servant, and modern English lady, from Old English bread-kne. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).