mainstays of human life.
So it was bread that became synonymous
with food itself in the lands from western Asia
through Europe, and took a prominent place in
religious and secular rituals (Passover
matzoh, Communion bread, wedding cakes).
In England, it provided a foundation for
naming social relations. “Lord” comes from
the Anglo-Saxon hlaford, “loaf ward,” the
master who supplies food; “lady” from
hlaefdige, “loafkneader,” the person whose
retinue produces what her husband distributes;
“companion” and “company” from the late
Latin companio, or “one who shares bread.”
The staff of life has also been a mainstay for
Western thought.
Food Words: Dough, Bread
Dough comes from an Indo-European root
that meant “to form, to build,” and that
also gave us the words figure, fiction, and
paradise (a walled garden). This derivation