The derivation of the word _lad_ has not yet been given, so far as I am
aware; and the word _lass_ is in the same predicament. _Lad_ is undoubtedly
of old usage in England, and in its archaic sense it has reference, not to
age, as now, but to service or dependence; being applied, not to signify a
youth or a boy, but a servant or inferior. {257}
In Pinkerton's _Poems from the Maitland MSS._ is one, purporting to be the
composition of Thomas of Ercildoune, which begins thus:
"When a man is made a kyng of a capped man."
After this line follow others of the same bearing, until we come to these:
"When rycht aut wronge astente togedere,
When laddes weddeth lovedies," &c.
The prophet is not, in these words, inveighing against ill-assorted
alliances between young men and old women; but is alluding to a general
_bouleversement_ of society, when _mésalliances_ of noble women to ignoble
men will take place.
This sense of the word gives us, I think, some help towards tracing its
derivation, and I have no doubt that its real parent is the Anglo-Saxon
_hlafæta_,--a word to be found in one instance only, in a corner of
Æthelbyrt's _Domas_: "Gif man ceorles _hlafætan_ of-slæth vi scyllingum
gebete."
By the same softening of sound which made _lord_ and _lady_ out of
_hlaford_ and _hlæfdige_, _hlafæta_ became _lad_, and _hlafætstre_ became
_lass_. As the lord supplied to his dependents the bread which they ate, so
each thus derived from the loaf the appellation of their mutual relation,
in the plain phraseology of our ancestors.
Dr. Leo, in his interesting commentary on the _Rectitudines singularum
personarum_ (edit. Halle, 1842, p. 144.), says:
"Ganz analog dem Verhältnisse von _ealdore_ und _gingra_ ist das
Verhältniss von _hlaford_ (brodherrn), _hlæfdige_ (brodherrin), und
_hlafæta_ (brodeszer). _Hlaford_ ist am Ende zum Standestitel (lord)
geworden; ursprünglich bezeichnet es jeden Gebieter; die Kinder, die
Leibeignen, die abhängigen freien Leute, alles was zum Hausstande und
zum Gefolge eines Mannes gehört, werden als dessen _hlafætan_
bezeichnet."
Perhaps some of your readers may favour myself and others by giving the
derivation of _boy_ and _girl_.