An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Laib

by Friedrich Kluge

Laib, masculine, ‘loaf,’ from Middle High German and Old High German leip (b), masculine (early Old High German hleib), ‘bread.’ It is the earlier Teutonic term for the modern Brot, which is unknown to Gothic, and almost so to Anglo-Saxon. Compare Gothic hlaifs (genitive hlaibis), Anglo-Saxon hlâf, English loaf; to these Gothic gahlaiba and Old High German gileibo, masculine, ‘companion,’ are allied; compare Kumpan. English lord, from Anglo-Saxon hlâford (Gothic *hlaibwards), ‘lord,’ literally ‘bread guardian,’ as well as English lady, from Anglo-Saxon hlœ̂fdige, ‘domina’ (literally ‘bread distributor’), contains High German Laib in the compound; compare English Lammas (Aug. 1), from Anglo-Saxon hlafmœsse, ‘bread-feast as a sort of harvest thanksgiving festival.’ These primitively compounds prove the great antiquity of Laib and the more recent origin of Brot. Slavonic borrowed its chlěbŭ, ‘bread’ (whence Lithuanian klëpas, Lettic klaipas, ‘bread’), from an Old Teutonic dialect (the Old Teutonic word being also found in Finnish and Esthonian — Finnish leipä, Esthonian leip, ‘bread’). See Lebkuchen.