load
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /loʊd/
ipa: /ləʊd/
homophone: lode
homophone: lowed
rhymes: -əʊd
Forms: form: loads
form: loading
form: loaded
form: loaded
form: loaden
Etymology: The sense of “burden” first arose in the 13th century as a secondary meaning of Middle English lode, loade, which had the main significance of “way, course, journey”, from Old English lād (“course, journey; way, street, waterway; leading, carrying; maintenance, support”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *laidō (“leading, way”), Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to go, go forth, die”).
Cognate with Middle Low German leide (“entourage, escort”), German Leite (“line, course, load”), Swedish led (“way, trail, line”), Icelandic leið (“way, course, route”)). As such, load is a doublet of lode, which has preserved the older meaning.
Most likely, the semantic extension of the Middle English substantive arose by conflation with the (etymologically unrelated) verb lade; however, Middle English lode occurs only as a substantive; the transitive verb load (“to charge with a load”) is recorded only in the 16th century (frequently in Shakespeare),
and (except for the participle laden) has largely supplanted lade in modern English.
For the meaning development from PIE, compare Latin carrus (whence carry) akin to currō.
Senses: examples: text: The dock workers refused to load the ship.
glosses: To put a load on or in (a means of conveyance or a place of storage).
examples: text: The longshoremen loaded the cargo quickly.
text: He loaded his stuff into his storage locker.
glosses: To place in or on a conveyance or a place of storage.
examples: text: The truck was supposed to leave at dawn, but in fact we spent all morning loading.
glosses: To put a load on something.
examples: text: The truck is designed to load easily.
text: [I]n his Paroxyſms, as he vvalked the Streets, he vvould have his Pockets loaden vvith Stones, to pelt at the Signs.
ref: 1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section XI. A Tale of a Tub.”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, pages 203–204:
glosses: To receive a load.
examples: text: The containers load quickly and easily.
glosses: To be placed into storage or conveyance.
examples: text: I pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. I had forgotten to load the gun.
glosses: To fill (a firearm or artillery) with munition.
examples: text: Now that you've loaded the film [into the camera], you're ready to start shooting.
text: Now that you've loaded the camera [with film], you're ready to start shooting.
glosses: To insert (an item or items) into an apparatus so as to ready it for operation, such as a reel of film into a camera, sheets of paper into a printer etc.
examples: text: The workers loaded the blast furnace with coke and ore.
glosses: To fill (an apparatus) with raw material.
examples: text: The cartridge was designed to load easily.
glosses: To be put into use in an apparatus.
examples: text: Click OK to load the selected data.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To read (data or a program) from a storage medium into computer memory.
examples: text: The file took ten minutes to load.
text: This program takes an age to load.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To transfer from a storage medium into computer memory.
examples: text: He walks to load the bases.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To put runners on first, second and third bases
examples: text: You can load the dice in your favour by researching the company before your interview.
text: The wording of the ballot paper loaded the vote in favour of the Conservative candidate.
glosses: To tamper with so as to produce a biased outcome.
glosses: To ask or adapt a question so that it will be more likely to be answered in a certain way.
examples: text: The new owners had loaded the company with debt.
text: The new owners loaded debt on the company.
glosses: To encumber with something negative, to place as an encumbrance.
examples: text: He loaded his system with carbs before the marathon.
text: He loaded carbs into his system before the marathon.
glosses: To provide in abundance.
glosses: To weight (a cane, whip, etc.) with lead or similar.
examples: text: to load wine
glosses: To adulterate or drug.
examples: text: one oscillation of the loaded magnet,
ref: 1877, Charles A. Schott, Notes on Measurements of Terre Arial Magnetism:
glosses: To magnetize.
glosses: to top up or purchase phone credits
Derived terms: autoload
carbo-load
deload
gut load
loadability
loadable
load-and-go
loader
load out
load up
load up on
lock and load
misload
preload
quickload
reload
underload
unload