Other forms: lords
A lord is a nobleman, and Lord is how you address one. In Britain the House of Lords is still named for them, and in older writing the lord of the manor owns the land everybody else works.
With a capital letter it is also a name for God in Christian use. And on its own it is something people say when startled or dismayed — oh Lord, good Lord — which is where most learners will actually meet it. Lord it over somebody means to behave as though you were better than them.
1nounexclaimSaid alone or as oh Lord to show surprise, dismay or relief.
“Oh Lord, I have left the tickets at home.”
2nounlordA nobleman, or a title of respect for one.
“The lord of the manor owned every field in sight.”
3noungodA name for God in Christian use.
“They gave thanks to the Lord.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
A lord was the loaf-guardian: Old English hlāf, bread, plus weard, keeper. The man at the head of the hall was the one who kept everybody fed.
Middle English
lord
English, today
lord
Built from
From Middle English lord. From Middle English lord and lorde (attested from the 15th century), from earlier (14th century) lourde and other variants which dropped the intervocalic consonant of earlier lowerd, louerd, loverd, laford, and lhoaverd; from Old English hlāford < hlāfweard, a compound of hlāf (“bread”) + weard (“guardian”); see loaf and ward. The term was already being applied broadly prior to the literary development of Old English and was influenced by its common use to translate Latin dominus. Compare Scots laird (“lord”), preserving a separate vowel development (from northern/Scottish Middle English lard, laverd), the Old English compound hlāfǣta (“servant”) literally “bread-eater”, and modern English lady, from Old English hlǣfdīġe (“bread-kneader”). The Middle English word laford was borrowed by Icelandic, where it survives as lávarður. a doublet of hlaford and laird.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA