TIL that the English word “Lord” in the sense of the head of an estate comes from an Old English word of Germanic origins, hlāfweard, later hlāford, later lord.
Normally I wouldn’t remark on my romps through etymology, but “hlafweard” is a compound of hlaf, or loaf, and weard, which means guardian (see also Ward or Warden, etc). Meaning that when you call someone a lord you are calling him an esteemed keeper of the bread.
HEY THERE BREADBOX PETER WIMSEY. LOAF GUARD PALPATINE. BREAD CLIP VETINARI.
Lady also derives from hlaf, but in this case hlafdige or bread kneader. She makes the bread, he monitors it. Women have to do all the work as usual.
Now, the reason I was looking this up was that I wanted to develop a gender-neutral analogue to lord/lady; there are analogues already out there naturally, but the Shivadh must be different and anyway I didn’t like the ones I’d seen suggested online.
Given that the origins of Lord and Lady aren’t all that strongly gendered anyway (they’re about what the person does, not what their gender is), I decided that if a woman is a bread-kneader and a man is a bread-guarder, a nonbinary person should be A BREAD EATER, which would be Hlafetan.
Thus I present to you the gender-neutral analogue to Lord or Lady: Ledan.
ETA: because many have asked, yes this is fine for anyone to use for any reason, I give it to the world. If it’s convenient to link back to my tumblr (or to my author website at extribulum.wordpress.com) that’d be lovely, but don’t feel obliged. Use it in good health, my ledans!
URGENT FUNDRAISING FOR BREAST CANCER TREATMENT
I am genuinely sorry for this, but my sister is dying. If I could only ask for your permission one by one, I would, but I am afraid of the possibility that Tumblr may consider our plea as spam. Also, if any of you want an even more elaborate explanation about her medical condition, kindly look into this account's pinned post or you can message me directly because Tumblr flagged the pinned post as "sensitive content" after attaching proof of how extremely disfigured her right arm is. At times, it is also being kept hidden so not everyone can received notification even after being repeatedly tagged.
(And here is the direct link to the fundraiser.)
That is why despite the almost 14k notes, I decided to make another post/an update if you may because we are beyond desperate and we have not received any help as of lately.
My older sister's health has declined drastically since last week of December that is why I took over this account as per her request. We don't want to resort to asking for monetary assistance online but we still don't have the funds to get her through. As I have mentioned above, you can look into this account's pinned post to see how deformed her right hand was (if you needed the not blurred one, please let me know because I cannot possibly upload the actual picture because her account might end up getting taken down).
The entirety of her right arm is not only swollen, but blood kept seeping out of her knuckles, her palm, and her elbow. Protruding tumors/swelling have reached both of her breast, too, and is affecting her shoulder/shoulder blades and even her spine. Please reach out to me if you want to see more proof/health updates because I cannot post the photos here for they are somewhat too graphic. There's a lot of blood loss.
And although her arm was recently amputated, she is still under critical care and is currently battling numerous health complications.
If you could, please take some time to read her pinned post—please do. If you cannot donate, a reblog will be highly appreciated still. We need all the help we could get. I, recently just turned 18, and am only working part-time jobs trying to keep our family afloat, and what I am earning is not enough. The hospital could stop providing treatment at any time if we cannot put together the amount we owe them and the amount needed to outsource some of the meds that their in-house pharmacy cannot supply. It is a matter of life and death so I am begging all of you to please consider helping us. Help us get through this, please.
If you want to be removed from being tagged, please message me directly, and I will immediately do as you like. I know that this may seem invasive but it is not our intention. We are just desperate, and have been running out of ways to keep my sister alive. I cannot offer something in return other than express my immense gratitude. I am sorry, and please consider helping us. Thank you very much.
@wasimhourani-26 has contacted me and as you can see he needs help
Please donate if you can! and if you cant, you can reblog to boost!
@4necdote @jadelover69 @justm3di0cr3 @ayten-is-living @quartztwst @twistedsocials
@oya-oya-okay @skibidibabygirl
Avocado pit carving has taken over my life, ft some jewelry I’ve been cooking up over the past couple weeks! Making lots of critters. Will definitely be selling stuff like these in the future so feel free to inquire!
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*gasp* my reflection! Edwin looking at himself always makes me cry...
Anyway, watch dead boy detectives it's good and gay. (if anyone wants to buy my art that'd be great, lmk!)
I submit to you that the most iconic feature of any animal is either unlikely or impossible to fossilize.
If all we had of wolves were their bones we would never guess that they howl.
If all we had of elephants were fossils with no living related species, we might infer some kind of proboscis but we’d never come up with those ears.
If all we had of chickens were bones, we wouldn’t know about their combs and wattles, or that roosters crow.
We wouldn’t know that lions have manes, or that zebras have stripes, or that peacocks have trains, that howler monkeys yell, that cats purr, that deer shed the velvet from their antlers, that caterpillars become butterflies, that spiders make webs, that chickadees say their name, that Canada geese are assholes, that orangutans are ginger, that dolphins echolocate, or that squid even existed.
My point here is that we don’t know anything about dinosaurs. If we saw one we would not recognize it. As my evidence I submit the above, along with the fact that it took us two centuries to realize they’d been all around us the whole time.
me BOOp-ing my own blogs for the awards just like him 🧐my reflEcTion 🤨