Etymograph

English

lade

Lade comes from Middle English laden ‘to load’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂- ‘to put, lay out’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kleh₂-1‘to put, lay out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hlaþaną1‘to load’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hlaþan1‘to load’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hladan1‘to load’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500laden1‘to load’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588lade1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English lade
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “Men from the fartheſt Equinoctiall line, Haue ſwarm’d in…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kleh₂-Wiktionary, English lade‘to put, lay out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hlaþanąWiktionary, English lade‘to load’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hlaþanWiktionary, English lade‘to load’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hladanWiktionary, English lade‘to load’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ladenWiktionary, English lade‘to load’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588ladeWiktionary, English lade. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “Men from the fartheſt Equinoctiall line, Haue ſwarm’d in…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂- ‘to put, lay out’

last, clerk, clergy, loot, cleric, 7 more

through Proto-Germanic *hlaþaną ‘to load’

ladle, 2 more

Another origin of lade

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*loyt-éh₂-reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*laidō‘a way, course’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*laidureconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150lād‘carrying, bringing, leading’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lad
  6. Englishtodaylade

Today it means

verb To fill or load (related to cargo or a shipment).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “lade”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂- / lade

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