lard

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English lard, also larde,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman larde, also lart and lard,^[3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin lārdum (“bacon, cured pork”), also lāridum.^[3][6][7][2] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1136 for fat bacon and rendered fat.^[8] The OED thinks the Latin word probably comes from Ancient Greek λαρινός (lārīnós, “fatted, fat”), with a change of suffix or from a Greek dialect form,^[3] while other dictionaries only call the two related;^{[9][10][5][11]} Barnhart suggests that both are contractions of derivatives of Proto-Indo-European *láyos (“bacon, fat”),^[6] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares laetus (“glad”) and largus (“abundant, generous”).^[4] The Latin word also gave Italian lardo and Spanish lardo.^[7] The verb is inherited from Middle English larden,^[2][7][6] borrowed from Old French larder (“to lard, cook with strips of bacon fat”),^[3][7][6][4] and the MED adds Medieval Latin lārdō (“to lard”).^[2] Formed from the noun, the French verb is recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1155.^[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun appears in 1231 as an English word in a Latin context, in Barnhart.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates it to the 13th century,^[4] but the OED's first English quotation, for the fat of a pig or fat pork, is from about 1400, in the Forme of Cury.^[3] The cookery verb, to put strips of bacon in lean meat, is older in the OED: before 1325, in Diuersa Cibaria.^[3] Barnhart's first verb is from before 1338, in Mannyng's Chronicle of England.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the noun meant salted or smoked fat pork and bacon as much as rendered fat,^[2][3] and the sense of fat pork lasted until the early 18th century.^[11] The white rendered fat is recorded from about 1440, in a translation of Palladius, the same text that first has the verb for smearing with lard.^[3] Johnson (1755) still lists both "the grease of swine" and "bacon; the flesh of swine".^[12] The verb widened to strewing or covering a thing all over with something, from about 1473 in Caxton,^[3] and then to interspersing speech or writing with ornament: 1549 in Barnhart,^[6] the 1540s in Etymonline,^[7] and about 1550 in the OED, in the Complaynt of Scotland, which often implies something calculated or self-conscious.^[3] To fatten or enrich with lard is recorded from 1566,^[3] and Weekley points to "larding the lean earth" in Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV.^[13] The figurative noun, anything fattening or enriching, dates from 1614.^[3] Mixing lard into butter, often figuratively, is recorded from 1866.^[3] American slang used the word for human fat from 1836,^[14] while the OED's first quotation for this sense is from 1918.^[3]

Timeline

• 1231 – noun, as an English word in a Latin context.^[6]
• before 1325 – verb, to prepare lean meat with strips of bacon.^[3] Barnhart has it before 1338.^[6]
• c. 1400 – noun, the fat of a pig; fat bacon or pork.^[3]
• c. 1440 – noun, the rendered white fat; verb, to smear with lard.^[3]
• c. 1473 – to cover or strew all over with something.^[3]
• c. 1550 – to intersperse speech or writing with words or ideas.^[3] Barnhart dates this to 1549.^[6]
• 1566 – to fatten, to enrich.^[3]
• 1614 – noun, figurative: anything likened to lard.^[3]
• 1836 – noun, human fat, in American slang.^[14] The OED first has this in 1918.^[3]
• 1866 – to mix butter or the like with lard.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The soft white fat of a pig, rendered for use in cooking: She fried the potatoes in lard.^[15][4][3]
2. (informal) Excess fat on a person's body.^[15][3][14]
3. (archaic) Fat pork or bacon.^[4][11]

Verb

1. To prepare lean meat for cooking by inserting strips of bacon or fat: The cook larded the venison before roasting it.^[15][4][3]
2. To smear or cover with lard or grease.^[15][4][3]
3. To add words or ideas to speech or writing, especially for show; to embellish or interlard: a speech larded with bad jokes.^[15][4][3]
4. To mix butter or a similar fat with lard.^[3][11]
5. (obsolete) To fatten or enrich, as with fat.^[4][11]

Word family

• lardy
• lardlike
• interlard
• lardaceous
• lardass
• lardon
• lardoon
• unlarded

Related words

• larder

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins