"lady" meaning in Middle English

See lady in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈlaːdiː(ə)/, /ˈladiː(ə)/, /ˈlavdiː(ə)/ [Early-Middle-English, mainly]
Etymology: From Old English hlǣfdīġe, in turn from hlāf (“bread, loaf”) + *dīġe (“maid”). Etymology templates: {{root|enm|ine-pro|*dʰeyǵʰ-}}, {{inh|enm|ang|hlǣfdīġe}} Old English hlǣfdīġe Head templates: {{head|enm|noun|g=|g2=|g3=|head=|sort=}} lady, {{enm-noun|gen=ladies|gen2=lady|pl=ladies}} lady (plural ladies, genitive singular ladies or lady) Forms: ladies [plural], ladies [genitive, singular], lady [genitive, singular], laddy [alternative], ladi [alternative], ladie [alternative], ladij [alternative], ladye [alternative], lavedi [alternative], lefdi [alternative], lefdy [alternative], levedi [alternative], levedy [alternative], lhevedi [alternative], lafdi [alternative, Early-Middle-English], laffdiȝ [alternative, Early-Middle-English], læfdi [alternative, Early-Middle-English], lævedi [alternative, Early-Middle-English], leafdi [alternative, Early-Middle-English]
  1. A woman with authority or leadership:
    A lady (mistress of a household)
    Sense id: en-lady-enm-noun-3~gcTr2- Categories (other): Household Disambiguation of Household: 42 3 9 3 19 6 18
  2. A woman with authority or leadership:
    A lady (noblewoman or female monarch).
    Sense id: en-lady-enm-noun-QgBj-3-V
  3. A woman with authority or leadership:
    A woman who manages an abbey or inn.
    Sense id: en-lady-enm-noun-1Vh74aZh
  4. The wife of a noble or monarch.
    Sense id: en-lady-enm-noun-fqS68bvo Categories (other): Nobility Disambiguation of Nobility: 7 7 7 32 29 7 13
  5. A polite way to address a noble or honoured woman.
    Sense id: en-lady-enm-noun-XNyJK3sw Categories (other): Middle English entries with incorrect language header, Middle English nouns with invariant genitive singulars, Nobility Disambiguation of Middle English entries with incorrect language header: 4 4 17 6 40 15 16 Disambiguation of Middle English nouns with invariant genitive singulars: 7 7 16 7 29 11 23 Disambiguation of Nobility: 7 7 7 32 29 7 13
  6. (by extension) Any woman. Tags: broadly
    Sense id: en-lady-enm-noun-kKe-GVMm
  7. A female deity (or the Virgin Mary).
    Sense id: en-lady-enm-noun-14URYcBB Categories (other): Female people, Nobility, Religion Disambiguation of Female people: 3 34 3 6 3 6 46 Disambiguation of Nobility: 7 7 7 32 29 7 13 Disambiguation of Religion: 0 0 4 0 0 0 96

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "descendants": [
    {
      "lang": "English",
      "lang_code": "en",
      "word": "lady"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Scots",
      "lang_code": "sco",
      "word": "lady"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Scots",
      "lang_code": "sco",
      "word": "leddy"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Yola",
      "lang_code": "yol",
      "word": "laady"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "lang_code": "is",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "lafði"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*dʰeyǵʰ-"
      },
      "expansion": "",
      "name": "root"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "hlǣfdīġe"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English hlǣfdīġe",
      "name": "inh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Old English hlǣfdīġe, in turn from hlāf (“bread, loaf”) + *dīġe (“maid”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ladies",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ladies",
      "tags": [
        "genitive",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lady",
      "tags": [
        "genitive",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laddy",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ladi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ladie",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ladij",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ladye",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lavedi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lefdi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lefdy",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "levedi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "levedy",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lhevedi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lafdi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laffdiȝ",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "læfdi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lævedi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "leafdi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "noun",
        "g": "",
        "g2": "",
        "g3": "",
        "head": "",
        "sort": ""
      },
      "expansion": "lady",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "gen": "ladies",
        "gen2": "lady",
        "pl": "ladies"
      },
      "expansion": "lady (plural ladies, genitive singular ladies or lady)",
      "name": "enm-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Middle English",
  "lang_code": "enm",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "42 3 9 3 19 6 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "enm",
          "name": "Household",
          "orig": "enm:Household",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              276,
              280
            ]
          ],
          "bold_translation_offsets": [
            [
              286,
              290
            ]
          ],
          "english": "And when the angel of the Lord had found her in the wilderness beside the spring of water, which is in the desert on the way to Shur, he said to her, \"Hagar, handmaiden of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?\" She answered, \"I am fleeing from the face of Sarai, my lady\".",
          "ref": "c. 1382, John Wycliffe, transl., Wycliffe's Bible, Genesis 16:7–9:",
          "text": "And whanne the aungel of the Lord hadde foundun hir biside the welle of water in wildirnes, the which is in the / weye of Sur in desert, he seide to hir, Agar, the hand mayden of Saray, whens comyst thow, and whithir gost thow? / The which answeride, Fro the face of Saray my ladi I flee.",
          "translation": "And when the angel of the Lord had found her in the wilderness beside the spring of water, which is in the desert on the way to Shur, he said to her, \"Hagar, handmaiden of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?\" She answered, \"I am fleeing from the face of Sarai, my lady\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A woman with authority or leadership:",
        "A lady (mistress of a household)"
      ],
      "id": "en-lady-enm-noun-3~gcTr2-",
      "links": [
        [
          "woman",
          "woman"
        ],
        [
          "authority",
          "authority"
        ],
        [
          "leadership",
          "leadership"
        ],
        [
          "lady",
          "lady#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A woman with authority or leadership:",
        "A lady (noblewoman or female monarch)."
      ],
      "id": "en-lady-enm-noun-QgBj-3-V",
      "links": [
        [
          "woman",
          "woman"
        ],
        [
          "authority",
          "authority"
        ],
        [
          "leadership",
          "leadership"
        ],
        [
          "lady",
          "lady#English"
        ],
        [
          "noblewoman",
          "noblewoman#English"
        ],
        [
          "female",
          "female#English"
        ],
        [
          "monarch",
          "monarch#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A woman with authority or leadership:",
        "A woman who manages an abbey or inn."
      ],
      "id": "en-lady-enm-noun-1Vh74aZh",
      "links": [
        [
          "woman",
          "woman"
        ],
        [
          "authority",
          "authority"
        ],
        [
          "leadership",
          "leadership"
        ],
        [
          "abbey",
          "abbey"
        ],
        [
          "inn",
          "inn"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "7 7 7 32 29 7 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "enm",
          "name": "Nobility",
          "orig": "enm:Nobility",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The wife of a noble or monarch."
      ],
      "id": "en-lady-enm-noun-fqS68bvo",
      "links": [
        [
          "noble",
          "noble"
        ],
        [
          "monarch",
          "monarch"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "4 4 17 6 40 15 16",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Middle English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 7 16 7 29 11 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Middle English nouns with invariant genitive singulars",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 7 7 32 29 7 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "enm",
          "name": "Nobility",
          "orig": "enm:Nobility",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A polite way to address a noble or honoured woman."
      ],
      "id": "en-lady-enm-noun-XNyJK3sw"
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Any woman."
      ],
      "id": "en-lady-enm-noun-kKe-GVMm",
      "links": [
        [
          "woman",
          "woman"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) Any woman."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "3 34 3 6 3 6 46",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "enm",
          "name": "Female people",
          "orig": "enm:Female people",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 7 7 32 29 7 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "enm",
          "name": "Nobility",
          "orig": "enm:Nobility",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 0 4 0 0 0 96",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "enm",
          "name": "Religion",
          "orig": "enm:Religion",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A female deity (or the Virgin Mary)."
      ],
      "id": "en-lady-enm-noun-14URYcBB",
      "links": [
        [
          "female",
          "female"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈlaːdiː(ə)/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈladiː(ə)/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈlavdiː(ə)/",
      "tags": [
        "Early-Middle-English",
        "mainly"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lady"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "Middle English entries with incorrect language header",
    "Middle English lemmas",
    "Middle English nouns",
    "Middle English nouns with invariant genitive singulars",
    "Middle English terms derived from Old English",
    "Middle English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European",
    "Middle English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰeyǵʰ-",
    "Middle English terms inherited from Old English",
    "Pages with 8 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "enm:Female people",
    "enm:Household",
    "enm:Nobility",
    "enm:Religion"
  ],
  "descendants": [
    {
      "lang": "English",
      "lang_code": "en",
      "word": "lady"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Scots",
      "lang_code": "sco",
      "word": "lady"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Scots",
      "lang_code": "sco",
      "word": "leddy"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Yola",
      "lang_code": "yol",
      "word": "laady"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "lang_code": "is",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "lafði"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*dʰeyǵʰ-"
      },
      "expansion": "",
      "name": "root"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "hlǣfdīġe"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English hlǣfdīġe",
      "name": "inh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Old English hlǣfdīġe, in turn from hlāf (“bread, loaf”) + *dīġe (“maid”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ladies",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ladies",
      "tags": [
        "genitive",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lady",
      "tags": [
        "genitive",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laddy",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ladi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ladie",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ladij",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ladye",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lavedi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lefdi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lefdy",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "levedi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "levedy",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lhevedi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lafdi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laffdiȝ",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "læfdi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lævedi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "leafdi",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "noun",
        "g": "",
        "g2": "",
        "g3": "",
        "head": "",
        "sort": ""
      },
      "expansion": "lady",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "gen": "ladies",
        "gen2": "lady",
        "pl": "ladies"
      },
      "expansion": "lady (plural ladies, genitive singular ladies or lady)",
      "name": "enm-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Middle English",
  "lang_code": "enm",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Middle English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              276,
              280
            ]
          ],
          "bold_translation_offsets": [
            [
              286,
              290
            ]
          ],
          "english": "And when the angel of the Lord had found her in the wilderness beside the spring of water, which is in the desert on the way to Shur, he said to her, \"Hagar, handmaiden of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?\" She answered, \"I am fleeing from the face of Sarai, my lady\".",
          "ref": "c. 1382, John Wycliffe, transl., Wycliffe's Bible, Genesis 16:7–9:",
          "text": "And whanne the aungel of the Lord hadde foundun hir biside the welle of water in wildirnes, the which is in the / weye of Sur in desert, he seide to hir, Agar, the hand mayden of Saray, whens comyst thow, and whithir gost thow? / The which answeride, Fro the face of Saray my ladi I flee.",
          "translation": "And when the angel of the Lord had found her in the wilderness beside the spring of water, which is in the desert on the way to Shur, he said to her, \"Hagar, handmaiden of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?\" She answered, \"I am fleeing from the face of Sarai, my lady\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A woman with authority or leadership:",
        "A lady (mistress of a household)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "woman",
          "woman"
        ],
        [
          "authority",
          "authority"
        ],
        [
          "leadership",
          "leadership"
        ],
        [
          "lady",
          "lady#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A woman with authority or leadership:",
        "A lady (noblewoman or female monarch)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "woman",
          "woman"
        ],
        [
          "authority",
          "authority"
        ],
        [
          "leadership",
          "leadership"
        ],
        [
          "lady",
          "lady#English"
        ],
        [
          "noblewoman",
          "noblewoman#English"
        ],
        [
          "female",
          "female#English"
        ],
        [
          "monarch",
          "monarch#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A woman with authority or leadership:",
        "A woman who manages an abbey or inn."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "woman",
          "woman"
        ],
        [
          "authority",
          "authority"
        ],
        [
          "leadership",
          "leadership"
        ],
        [
          "abbey",
          "abbey"
        ],
        [
          "inn",
          "inn"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The wife of a noble or monarch."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "noble",
          "noble"
        ],
        [
          "monarch",
          "monarch"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A polite way to address a noble or honoured woman."
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Any woman."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "woman",
          "woman"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) Any woman."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A female deity (or the Virgin Mary)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "female",
          "female"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈlaːdiː(ə)/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈladiː(ə)/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈlavdiː(ə)/",
      "tags": [
        "Early-Middle-English",
        "mainly"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lady"
}

Download raw JSONL data for lady meaning in Middle English (4.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Middle English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.