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LOAF

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 834 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LOAF , properly the See also:

mass of See also:bread made at one See also:baking, hence the smaller portions into which the bread is divided for retailing. These are of See also:uniform See also:size (see BAKING) and are named according to shape (" See also:tin loaf," " cottage loaf," &c.), See also:weight ("quartern loaf," &c.), or quality of See also:flour (" See also:brown loaf," &c.). " Loaf," O.E. hldf, is a word See also:common to See also:Teutonic See also:languages; cf. Ger. Laib, or Leib, See also:Dan. lev, Goth. hlaifs; similar words with the same meaning are found in See also:Russian, Finnish and Lettish, but these may have been adapted from Teutonic. The ultimate origin is unknown, and it is uncertain whether " bread " (q.v.) or " loaf " is the earlier in usage. The O.E. hlaf is seen in " See also:Lammas " and in " See also:lord," i.e. hlaford for hlafweard, the loaf-keeper, or " bread-warder "; cf. the O.E. word for a See also:household servant hlaf-ceta, loaf-eater. The See also:Late See also:Lat. companio, one who shares, pans, bread, Eng. " See also:companion," was probably an See also:adaptation of the Goth. gahlaiba, O.H. Ger. gileipo, messmate, comrade. The word " loaf " is also used in See also:sugar manufacture, and is applied to sugar shaped in a mass like a See also:cone, a " Sugar-loaf," and to the small knobs into which refined sugar is cut, or " loaf-sugar." The See also:etymology of the verb " to loaf," i.e. to idle, lounge about, and the substantive " loafer," an idler, a lazy vagabond, has been much discussed. R.

H. See also:

Dana (Two Years before the See also:Mast, 184o) called the word " a newly invented See also:Yankee word." J. R. See also:Lowell (Biglow Papers, and See also:series, Introd.) explains it as See also:German in origin, and connects it with laufen, to run, and states that the dialectical See also:form lofen is used in the sense of " See also:saunter up and down." This explanation has been generally accepted. The New See also:English See also:Dictionary rejects it, however, and states that laufen is not used in this sense, but points out that the German Landlaufer, the English obsolete word landlouper," or " landloper," one who wanders about the See also:country, a vagrant or vagabond, has a resemblance in meaning. J. S. See also:Farmer and W. E. See also:Henley's Dictionary of See also:Slang and its Analogues gives as See also:French synonyms of " loafer," See also:chevalier de la loupe and loupeur.

End of Article: LOAF

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