lede

lede · noun¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*h₁lewdʰ-“to grow; people”
2. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*h₁léwdʰis“man, people”
3. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*liudiz“man; person; men; people”
4. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*liudi
5. Old English · inherited fromlēode“men; people; the people of a country”
6. Old English · inherited fromlēoda“man; person; native of a country”
7. Old English · inherited fromlēod“man; chief, leader; (poetic) prince; a people, people group; nation”
8. Middle English · inherited fromlede
9. English todaylede

From Middle English lede, leode (“man; human being, person; lord, prince; God; sir; group, kind; race; a people, nation; human race; land, real property”) [and other forms], from three closely related words: * Old English lēod (“man; chief, leader; (poetic) prince; a people, people group; nation”); * Old English lēoda (“man; person; native of a country”), related to lēod; and * Old English lēode (“men; people; the people of a country”), originally the plural of lēod. Lēod is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *liudi, from Proto-Germanic *liudiz (“man; person; men; people”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁léwdʰis (“man, people”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ- (“to grow; people”). Doublet of leud. Cognates The English word is cognate with Dutch lieden (“people”), lui(den) (“people”), German Leute (“people”), Norwegian lyd (“people”), Polish lud (“people”), Russian люди (ljudi, “people”), West Frisian lie (“people”).

lede · noun²

A deliberate misspelling of lead, originally used in instructions given to printers to indicate which paragraphs constitute the lede, intended to avoid confusion with the word lead which may actually appear in the text of an article. Compare dek (“subhead”) (modified from deck) and hed (“headline”) (from head).

lede · verb³

See lead.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from mid 20th c. The introductory paragraph or paragraphs of a newspaper, or a news or other type of article; the lead or lead-in.