Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗A boy or young man. · A hedonistic or irresponsible young man; a Jack the lad. · A familiar term of address for a young man. · A groom who works with horses.
From Middle English ladde (“foot soldier, servant; male commoner; boy”), from late Old English *ladda (attested in Old English personal byname Ladda), probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Old Norse ladd (“hose, woolen stocking; sock”), which may have undergone semantic shift to mean a term of abuse (e.g. foolish youth, youngster of lower social status, etc.); thence by connotative amelioration coming to mean any young fellow. Compare Norwegian ladd (“rough sock, woolen or felt slipper”) and the -ladd in compounds Askeladd/Askeladden (a nickname in fairy tales, "Ash Lad") and tusseladd (“nincompoop”). See also Swedish ladder (“old shoes”), lodde (“Frisian shoe”), lädder (“socks”), all said to be related to Old Norse loðinn (“hairy, shaggy, woolly”), loddi (“shaggy dog”).
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 2 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
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"templates": [
{
"name": "etymon",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:ladde",
"tree": "1"
},
"expansion": "[Appendix:Glossary#inherited|Inherited]] from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"lad\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"lad\">"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
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"2": "enm",
"3": "ladde",
"4": "",
"5": "foot soldier, servant; male commoner; boy"
},
"expansion": "Middle English ladde (“foot soldier, servant; male commoner; boy”)"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "*ladda"
},
"expansion": "Old English *ladda"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gmq",
"3": "-"
},
"expansion": "North Germanic"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "non",
"3": "ladd",
"4": "",
"5": "hose, woolen stocking; sock"
},
"expansion": "Old Norse ladd (“hose, woolen stocking; sock”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
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"t": "rough sock, woolen or felt slipper"
},
"expansion": "Norwegian ladd (“rough sock, woolen or felt slipper”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sv",
"2": "ladder",
"3": "",
"4": "old shoes"
},
"expansion": "Swedish ladder (“old shoes”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "non",
"2": "loðinn",
"3": "",
"4": "hairy, shaggy, woolly"
},
"expansion": "Old Norse loðinn (“hairy, shaggy, woolly”)"
},
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[
"ladde",
"ladde#Middle_English"
],
[
"*ladda",
"Reconstruction:Old English/ladda"
],
[
"byname",
"byname"
],
[
"Ladda",
"Ladda#Old_English"
],
[
"ladd",
"ladd#Old_Norse"
],
[
"semantic shift",
"semantic shift#English"
],
[
"foolish",
"foolish#English"
],
[
"youth",
"youth#English"
],
[
"youngster",
"youngster#English"
],
[
"connotative",
"connotative#English"
],
[
"amelioration",
"amelioration#English"
],
[
"young",
"young#English"
],
[
"fellow",
"fellow#English"
],
[
"ladd",
"ladd#Norwegian"
],
[
"tusseladd",
"tusseladd#Norwegian"
],
[
"ladder",
"ladder#Swedish"
],
[
"lodde",
"lodde#Swedish"
],
[
"lädder",
"lädder#Swedish"
],
[
"loðinn",
"loðinn#Old_Norse"
],
[
"loddi",
"loddi#Old_Norse"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A boy or young man.",
"A hedonistic or irresponsible young man; a Jack the lad.",
"A familiar term of address for a young man.",
"A groom who works with horses."
],
"tags": [
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