Etymology: Representing three different but closely related Old English words: (1) Old English léod (feminine), nation, people; not found elsewhere in Germanic as feminine, but corresponding in sense with the masculine noun Old High German liut (Middle High German liut , also neuter), Middle Dutch liet , Old Norse lýð-r people (whence Middle English lith n.⁵ followers). (2) Old English léode, léoda, Northumbrian líoda, plural, men, people = Old Saxon liudi (Middle Dutch liede, Dutch lieden), Old High German liuti (Middle High German liute, modern German leute), Old Norse lýðir. (3) Old English léod strong masculine, man (occurring only as a poetical word for ‘king’, and in the compounds burhléod (-líod) burgher, landléod inhabitant); not found in the other Germanic languages. Cognates outside Germanic are Old Church Slavonic ljudŭ masculine singular, people, nation, plural ljudije people, folks, Latvian ljaudis feminine singular, people.The relation between the Germanic words is uncertain, but the Slavo-Lettic cognates suggest that the Old Germanic type was a collective singular *leuđi-s (masculine), people, the plural of which had naturally much the same sense (compare folk, folks). The Old English masculine singular, with the sense ‘man’, seems to have been evolved from the plural meaning ‘people’. The feminine gender of the Old English léod people, and the form léoda (líoda) in the plural instead of léode, seem to be due to the influence of the synonymous þéod feminine. The Germanic word is commonly regarded as from the Old Aryan root *leudh-, whence Gothic liudan, Old Saxon liodan, Old English léodan, to grow, spring (from).

Etymology: Altered spelling of lead n.² (see lead n.² 1f), originally in order to distinguish the word's use in instructions to printers from printable text.