What is origin of "lady"?

A

Amethyst1

New Member
Location
USA
According to a source on the internet, the word LADY originally meant
disappointment or frustration?

Is this true?
 

"Lady" comes from Middle and Old English. M.E. lafdi, lavede, ladi, from O.E. hlæfdige "mistress of a household, wife of a lord," lit. "one who kneads bread," from hlaf "bread" + -dige "maid," related to dæge "maker of dough".

The meanings of the word have evolved over the years, first taking on "woman of superior social class" c.1205, and "woman as an object of chivalrous love" from c.1374. It was also used as a "short-cut" word rather than using titles such a Countess, Marchioness, Viscountess and others. Also used as form of address for daughters of Earls, Dukes & etc.

Used as a common form of address for a female since the late 1800's.

I still use "m'Lady", a common contraction of "My Lady", from all my years of pirate dialogue. :cool:

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SifuPhil said:
"Lady" comes from "one who kneads bread,"
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That Guy said:
"If you had a face like mine, you'd punch me right on the nose, and I'm just the fella to do it."
Stan Laurel
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He had some of the greatest lines! The one that I will always best remember was from March of The Wooden Soldiers (Babes in Toyland):

Ollie Dee: [Bo Peep is being forced to marry Barnaby] Stannie's so upset he isn't even going to the wedding. You're upset aren't you, Stannie?

Stannie Dum: Upset? I'm housebroken!

Ollie Dee: Not housebroken!

Ollie Dee: [to Bo Peep] He means 'heartbroken'

Ollie Dee: [scoffs] Housebroken.

Watching Soldiers was an annual tradition every Thanksgiving when I was a kid. The dialogue is pretty much still etched into my brain, and I spent many wonderful hours being reduced to tears by that movie.

Simpler times, simpler tastes, but it still makes me laugh uncontrollably.
 
Boy when I was a kid one of the local, well Seattle stations, had the best afternoon kids show Brakeman Bill and they ran Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello and The Three Stooges all the time.

Good times then I tell you. I loved them all, but I really adored Bud Abbott the most.

I can still watch any of those gentlemen anytime, Oh and W. C. Fields movies too.

I forgot to mention Brakeman Bill's side kick, Crazy Donkey.

Holy smokes I don't remember Crazy Donkey looking so crappy. LOL imagine trying to pass that off now on a kiddies show.

brakemanbill-crazydonkey.jpg
 
For whatever reason W.C. Fields never did much for me as a kid, certainly nowhere near as much as all those others. I guess I was just a slapstick junkie.

It was only later in life when I started to delve into their biographies that I learned William Claude was perhaps the nastiest of the bunch in his personal life.

Old Hipster said:
Holy smokes I don't remember Crazy Donkey looking so crappy. LOL imagine trying to pass that off now on a kiddies show.
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LOL - that's true for a lot of the shows we used to watch, I think. Maybe that's why kids today have a very different kind of imagination than we did, because we had to fill in the blanks instead of being spoon-fed everything.

Heck, until I was 18 this was my only girlfriend -

girlfriend.jpg

... as you can see, she took a LOT of imagination to make real!
 
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