ladle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ladel,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English hlædel (“instrument for drawing water, ladle”),^[5][6][7] formed from Old English hladan (“to load; to draw up water”) + -el,^[6][3][8] with a suffix expressing an appliance or tool, as in handle.^[3][4] The Old English verb, the source of lade, is from Proto-Germanic *hlaþaną,^[1][9] and is cognate with Old Norse hlaða, Dutch laden and German laden.^[6][8] Its sense "to draw water" is peculiar to English.^[6][3] Etymonline, following Watkins, takes the Germanic verb back to Proto-Indo-European *klā- (“to spread out flat”),^[3] which Klein also gives, comparing Lithuanian klóti (“to spread”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

An instrument for drawing water: before 1000, in an Old English gloss on Latin antlia.^[4][5][6][3] An Old English list of things one should have names it among kettles and pans.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer used the word twice.^[10] The Middle English Dictionary records a utensil for stirring and pouring, a holder for molten metal or glass, one of the flatboards of a waterwheel and a ladleful.^[2] The shape was then applied more widely: a founder's pan for molten metal (1483), a copper tube on a staff for charging a gun with loose powder (1497), and, in Scottish churches, a wooden box on a long handle for the collection and communion tokens (1813),^[6][11] which the English Dialect Dictionary records for the offertory in Scotland.^[12] A Scottish burgh duty on grain brought to market was also called the ladle, from 1574.^[6][11] Johnson (1755) gave both the large spoon and the receptacles of a mill wheel.^[13] The verb came from the noun: first in 1525, to fit a water mill with ladle-boards, then, about 1533, to lift out with a ladle.^[6][14][15] Ladle out, to hand out freely or too lavishly, grew from this,^[11] and American slang from 1838 used it of talking slowly and solemnly.^[16]

Timeline

• before 1000 – hlædel, an instrument for drawing water.^[4][5][6]
• c. 1300 – the form ladel.^[4][14]
• 1483 – in founding, a pan holding molten metal.^[6][11]
• 1497 – in gunnery, an instrument for charging with loose powder.^[6][11]
• 1525 – verb, to fit a water mill with ladle-boards.^[6][11]
• c. 1533 – verb, to lift out with a ladle.^[6] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to about 1532,^[14][15] and Etymonline to 1758.^[3]
• 1574 – a Scottish burgh duty on grain.^[6]
• 1611 – a float-board of a waterwheel.^[6] The Shorter Oxford dates this sense to late Middle English.^[11]
• 1813 – a collecting box on a long handle, in Scottish churches.^[6][11]
• 1838 – American slang, to talk slowly and solemnly.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long-handled spoon with a deep bowl, for serving or moving liquids: a wooden ladle.^[17][15][6]
2. A large vessel with a pouring lip for carrying molten metal or glass, as in a foundry.^[17][15][6]
3. The contents of a ladle; a ladleful.^[11]
4. In Scottish churches, a box on a long handle for taking up the collection.^[6][11][12]
5. A float-board of a waterwheel.^[6][11][13]
6. Formerly, a long-handled instrument for charging a cannon with loose powder.^[6][11][15]

Verb

1. To lift out or serve with a ladle: He ladled broth into each cup.^[17][15][6]
2. ladle out: to hand out freely or too lavishly: The speaker kept ladling out compliments.^[11][6]
3. (obsolete except historically) To fit a water mill with ladle-boards.^[6][11]

Word family

• ladler
• ladleful

Related words

• lade
• laden
• lading
• load

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins