If "lord" began as the "loaf-warden," "lady" was its perfect domestic counterpart. The Old English hlæfdige was a compound of hlāf ("loaf, bread") and a second element related to dæge ("a kneader of dough"). A lady was, literally, the "bread-kneader" — the woman who managed the kitchen and prepared the food the household lived on.
Two Halves of a Household
Together, hlāfweard and hlæfdige mapped the domestic economy of an early medieval Anglo-Saxon house: the man who guarded the bread supply and the woman who prepared it. Neither title was originally noble — they were ordinary words for the head couple of a household.
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A Word Worn Smooth
Hlæfdige went through the same kind of compression as hlāfweard. The middle f dropped out, the long ending was simplified, and by the 13th century the word had become levedi, then lavedi, and finally lady. The "loaf" and the "kneader" both disappeared from sight.
Marian Echoes
One curious survival of the older meaning lives on in the names of plants and days: ladybird (a beetle named for the Virgin Mary, "Our Lady"), Lady Day (the feast of the Annunciation, 25 March), and the flower lady's mantle. Each of these uses "lady" with the older sense of "the lady of the house" — only the house has become a metaphor for the heavenly one.