“LADY”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 5 September 1934, Page 10

“LADY”

“Lady” is a word which furnishes a most pleasing idea of the customs of our Saxon ancestors. The term is compounded of two Saxon words—“leaf” or “laf,” signifying a loaf of bread, and “dian,” to give or to serve. It was the fashion in times of old for families of affluence to give regularly a portion of bread to neighbours who might be in need of assistance. On such occasions the mistress of the household distributed the daily or weekly dole. Hence was she called the “laf-dy,” or the “bread-giver,” and in course of time, the word was abbreviated to “lady.” An old writer observes: “The meaning is now as little known as the practice which gave rise to it; yet it is from, that hospitable custom that, to this day, the ladies, in this kingdom alone, serve the meat at their own tables.” It is to be feared that in the great families of to-day the old custom is not general. It was certainly so in Lady Mary Wort ley Montague’s time, for we read that in her youth she received regular instructions in the art of carving, or serving, meat.