Forms: 4–6 ladde, 6–8 Sc. lawd, 7 ladd, 5– lad. [ME. ladde, of obscure origin.
Possibly a use of the definite form of the pa. pple. of LEAD v.; in ME. lad is a dialectal variant of led pa. pple. The use might have originated in the application of the plural ladde elliptically to the followers of a lord. Actual evidence, however, is wanting. It is noteworthy that a ‘Godric Ladda’ attests a document written 1088–1123 (Earle, Land Charters, 270). If this cognomen be (as is possible) identical with ME. ladde, its evidence is unfavorable to the derivation suggested above.
Quite inadmissible, both on the ground of phonology and meaning, is the current statement that the word is cognate with the last syllable of the Goth. juggalauþs young man; the ending -lauþs (stem -lauda- adj., laudi- sb.), which does not occur as an independent word, has in compounds the sense ‘having (a certain) growth or size,’ as in hwēlauþs how great, swalauþs so great, samalauþs equally great. The Celtic derivations commonly alleged are also worthless: the Welsh llawd is a dictionary figment invented to explain the feminine ’lodes (in Dictionaries llodes), which Prof. Rhys has shown to be shortened from herlodes, fem. of herlawd, a. ME. herlot HARLOT; and the Irish lath does not exist in either the earlier or the later sense of ‘lad,’ but means ‘hero’ or ‘champion.’]
† 1. A serving-man, attendant; a man of low birth and position; a varlet. Obs.
c. 1300. Havelok, 1786. ‘Hwat haue ye seid,’ quoth a ladde.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 154. Mony ladde þer forth-lep to laue & to kest.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 32. To make lordes of laddes Of lond that he wynneth.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 4451. And weþen art þou; þov ladde prout?
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 8280. Whan Serenides the Ring had, Glad she was, and called a lad.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxix. 390. Þis ladde [Jesus] with his lesyngis has oure lawes lorne.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), III. 43. Lord and lad, to my law doth lowte.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 1015. A lad to wedde a lady is an inconuenyent.
c. 1530. L. Cox, Rhet. (1899), 77. He had with hym syngyng laddes and women seruantes.
1530. Lyndesay, Test. Papyngo, 391. Pandaris, pykthankis, custronis, and clatteraris, Loupis vp frome laddis, sine lychtis amang lardis.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam. ii. 15. Or euer they burned the fatt, the prestes lad [Vulg. puer] came, and sayde [etc.].
1549–50. in Swayne, Churchw. Acc. Sarum (1896), 277. Smythe the carpenter for j dayes Labor for his servaunte Clerke and his ladde for takyng downe of the tymbre.
1721. Kelly, Scot. Prov., 240. Lay up like a Laird, and seek like a Lad.
2. A boy, youth; a young man, young fellow. Also, in the diction of pastoral poetry, used to denote ‘a young shepherd.’ In wider sense applied familiarly or endearingly (sometimes ironically) to a male person of any age, esp. in the form of address my lad. Lad of wax: a shoemaker.
[c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 283/1. Ladde, or knave, garcio.
1483. Cath. Angl., 206/1. A Ladde, vbi a knaffe.]
1535. Coverdale, Prov. xxii. 15. Foolishnes sticketh in the herte of ye lad, but ye rod of correccion driueth it awaye.
1552. Latimer, Serm. (1584), 323. First he is a childe; afterward he becommeth a ladde; then a yong man, and after that a perfect man.
1562. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), i. 53. Lymmer lawdis and litle lassis.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. ii. 112. Prin. Where shall we take a purse to morrow, Iacke? Fal. Where thou wilt Lad.
1600. Dekker, Honest Wh., II. Dram. Wks. II. 115. How now old Lad, what doest cry?
1602. Narcissus (1893), 78. Why, well said, my ladds of mettall.
1608. Willet, Hexapla Exod., 787. Our blessed Sauiour … said to his disciples, children, or lads, haue ye any meate?
a. 1650. Captain Carr, 30, in Furnivall, Percy Folio, I. 81. ‘Ile not giue over my house,’ shee said, ‘neither for Ladds nor man.’
1709. Byron, Lit. Rem. (1854), I. I. 6. The other two sizers, one sophister, the other a Lancashire lad of our year.
1717. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Pope, 1 April. The young lads … divert themselves with making garlands for their favourite lambs.
1724. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 269. The old lad was not to be caught.
1794. Sporting Mag., III. 201. Requesting you as a brother lad of wax to make me some of your tight shoes.
1829. Hood, Eug. Aram, viii. My gentle lad, what is’t you read?
1856. R. M. Ballantyne, Snowflakes & Sunbeams, xxviii. 390. What did you say struck you, Harry, my lad?
1871. R. Ellis, trans. Catullus, lxxviii. 4. Lovely the lady, the lad lovely, a company sweet.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. v. 140. All handsome lads and pretty lasses.
† b. A man of spirit and vigor.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., IV. vii. (Arb.), 71. I trowe they shall finde and feel that I am a lad.
3. Sc. A sweetheart.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., V. ii. And am I then a match for my ain lad?
1781. J. Mayne, Logan Braes, in Chambers’ Cycl. Eng. Lit., II. 493. While my dear lad maun face his faes Far, far frae me.
1786. Burns, Dream, xiv. Ye royal Lasses dainty, Heav’n … gie you lads a-plenty.
4. attrib., as lad-porter; † lad-age, the age of boyhood; lad-bairn, -wean Sc., a male child.
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. I. Vocation, 170. Here have I past my *Lad-age fair and good.
17[?]. Herd’s Collect. Sc. Songs (1776), II. 149. This maiden had a braw *lad-bairn.
1821. Galt, Ann. Parish, xix. 180. There was a greater christening of lad bairns than had ever been in any year during my incumbency.
1894. Daily News, 11 Sept., 5/3. A *lad porter on the … Railway.
1821. Hogg, Jacobite Relics, II. 175. Bonny orphan *lad-weans twa.
Hence the nonce-wds. Laddess, a girl, lass; Laddism, the condition or character of a lad; Ladhood, the state of being a lad.
1768. H. Walpole, Corr. (1837), II. 407. I know that he is a very amiable lad and I do not know that she is not as amiable a laddess.
1843. Blackw. Mag., LIII. 80. They … emerge … into the full and perfect imago of little lords … without any of those intermediate conditions of laddism, hobble-de-hoyism [etc.].
1883. Spectator, 28 April, 543. Youth or ladhood was now protracted further into life.
1891. E. W. Nye, in Century Mag., Nov., 61/1. In this region I grew to ladhood.
