Lord

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Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler.^[1][2] The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are entitled to courtesy titles. The collective "Lords" can refer to a group or body of peers.

Etymology

According to the

Historical usage

Feudalism

Under the

The substantive title of "lord of the manor" came into use in the English medieval system of

The UK Identity and Passport Service will include such titles on a British passport as an "observation" (e.g., 'The Holder is the Lord of the Manor of X'), provided the holder can provide documentary evidence of ownership.[7] The United States^[8] forbids the use of all titles on passports. Australia forbids the use of titles on passports if those titles have not been awarded by the Crown (in reference to the Australian Monarchy) or the Commonwealth (in reference to the Australian Government).^[9]

Laird

The Scottish title Laird is a shortened form of 'laverd' which is an old Scottish word deriving from an Anglo-Saxon term meaning 'Lord' and is also derived from the middle English word 'Lard' also meaning 'Lord'. The word is generally used to refer to any owner of a landed estate and has no meaning in heraldic terms and its use is not controlled by the Lord Lyon.

Modern usage

Peers and children of peers

Lord is used as a generic term to denote members of the

"Lord" is also used as a courtesy title for younger sons of a British prince, duke, or marquesses, in the style "Lord (first name) (surname)".^[10] The eldest son of a peer would be entitled to use one of his father's subsidiary titles (if any). For example, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent holds the subsidiary title of Earl of St Andrews, which is used by his elder son George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, while his younger son is styled Lord Nicholas Windsor. However, if the father has no subsidiary title, the older son will assume a courtesy title of "Lord (last name)", such as in the case of the Earl of Devon. As these forms of address are merely courtesy titles, the holder is not actually a member of the peerage and is not entitled to use the definite article "The" as part of the title.

House of Lords

The upper house of the

The Lords Temporal greatly outnumber the Lords Spiritual, there being nearly 800 of the former and only 26 of the latter. As of December 2016, 92 Lords Temporal sit in the House in right of hereditary peerages (that being the maximum number allowed under the House of Lords Act 1999) and 19 sit in right of judicial life peerages under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876. The rest are life peers under the Life Peerages Act 1958.

Judiciary

Until the creation of the

Examples of judges who use the appellation "lord" include:

• Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom not holding peerages, who are addressed as if they were life peers by Royal Warrant.^[11] Wives of male justices who are not peers are addressed as if they were wives of peers. These forms of address are applicable both in court and in social contexts.
• Judges of the
  Court of Appeal of England and Wales
  , known as 'Lords Justices of Appeal'.
• Judges of the Scottish Court of Session, known as 'Lords of Council and Session'.
• Justices of the Canadian provincial Supreme Courts, addressed in Court as "My Lord" or "My Lady" and referred to in legal literature as "Lordships" or "Ladyships".
• Judges of the
  High Courts of India, who are addressed as "My Lord" and "Your Lordship" in court. The Bar Council of India called upon lawyers to give up this practice of addressing judges as 'lords' in 2006 but in practice, this was ignored.^[12]

The Board of Admiralty (1628–1964) was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. The title Naval Lord to the Board of Admiralty was first used around the 1600s. These were a body of Senior Admirals, first called Naval Lord Commissioners, then Naval Lords then Professional Naval Lords then Sea Lords. The President of the Board was known as the First Lord of the Admiralty (with the other five Naval appointments being the Second Sea Lord, Third Sea Lord, etc. sequentially), or sometimes First Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty. With the abolition of the Board of Admiralty and its merger into the Ministry of Defence in 1964, formal control of the Navy was taken over by the Admiralty Board of the Defence Council of the United Kingdom, with the day-to-day running of the Navy taken over by the Navy Board. The office of Lord High Admiral was vested in the Crown (i.e. in the person of the current British monarch) and that of First Lord of the Admiralty ceased to exist, but the First, Second and Third Sea Lords retained their titles, despite ceasing to be Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. To this day (2023) the first two senior officers of the Royal Navy are still known as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, and Second Sea Lord and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff.

The Lords Commissioners were entitled collectively to be known as "The Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty", and were commonly referred to collectively as "Their Lordships" or "My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty", though individual members were not entitled to these styles. More informally, they were known in short as "The Lords of the Admiralty". The Lords of the Admiralty are not peers.

Ecclesiastical

In

In most cultures in Europe an equivalent appellation denoting deference exists. The French term Mon Seigneur ("My Lord"), shortened to the modern French Monsieur, derives directly from the Latin seniorem, meaning "elder, senior".^[13] From this Latin source derived directly also the Italian Signore, the Spanish Señor, the Portuguese Senhor.

Non-Romance languages have their own equivalents. Of the Germanic family there is the Dutch Meneer/Mijnheer/De Heer (as in: aan de heer Joren Jansen), German Herr, and Danish Herre. All three of these stem from a Germanic title of respect (in this case, from the Proto-Germanic root *haira-, "hoary, venerable, grey", likely a loan translation of Latin seniorem).^[14] In other European languages there is Welsh Arglwydd, Hungarian Úr, Greek Kyrie, Polish Pan, Czech pán, Breton Aotrou, and Albanian Zoti.

In several Indian languages there are the

• English-language
  Adonai" ("My Lords") for appearances of YHWH.^[16]
• In Christianity, New Testament translations into English often refer to Jesus as "Lord" or "the Lord", translating Greek κύριος.
• In Aramaic, the title Mar, which means "Lord", is used for saints, ecclesiastical figures, and Jesus.
• Semitic religions gave other deities appellations corresponding to "Lord" including:
  • Baʿal Haddu
    once the form "Hadad" became too sacred for any but his high priest to utter.
  • Similarly,
    Tammuz
    came to be addressed as "Adoni" ("My Lord").
• In the non-Semitic Sumerian culture, En means "Lord", as in the names of Sumerian deities such as Enki and Enlil.
• In
  Gautama Buddha
  is often called "Lord Buddha".
• In Jainism, "Lord" refers to the Mahavira.
• In Ancient Greece, the name Adonis was a form of the Semitic Adoni.
• In
  Freya
  may have the meaning "Lord" and "Lady".
• The
  Cerridwen
  .
• In
  King James Bible, in Mormonism "the Lord" refers to Jesus. Elohim, a separate individual who is the father of Jesus, is generally referred to by Mormons as "God" or "Heavenly Father". (See Mormon cosmology
  for references.)
• In
  Hindu theology, the Svayam Bhagavan may refer to the concept of the Absolute representation of the monotheistic God. Another name more commonly used in Hindu theology is Ishvara, meaning "The Lord", the personal god consisting of the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. In common parlance, 'Lord' is used before many deities, for example, Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesha, Lord Rama etc. as a translation of "Shri
  ".
• Arabic
  : رب).

• Europe:
  • Lord Bishop
  • Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom
  • Lord High Constable
  • Lord High Steward
  • Lord High Treasurer
  • Lord Protector
• Asia:
  • Nguyễn lords
  • Trịnh lords

Present usage:

• Lord Chamberlain
• Lord Chancellor
• Lord Commissioner of Justiciary
• Lord High Admiral
• Lord Justice Clerk
• Lord Marshal
• Lord mayor
• Lord of Council and Session
• Lord of the Isles
• Lord of the Treasury
• Lord President of the Court of Session
• Lord provost
• Lord Rector
• Lord Steward

See also

• Forms of address in the United Kingdom
• Heerlijkheid
• Lord's Prayer
• Milord
• False titles of nobility

References

External links

• The dictionary definition of lord at Wiktionary
• Quotations related to Lord at Wikiquote