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lede

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: LEDE, ledě, and leđe

English

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WOTD – 3 May 2022

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English lede, leode (“man; human being, person; lord, prince; God; sir; group, kind; race; a people, nation; human race; land, real property”) [and other forms],[1] from three closely related words:

Lēod is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *liudi, from Proto-Germanic *liudiz (“man; person; men; people”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁léwdʰis (“man, people”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ- (“to grow; people”).[2] Doublet of leud.

Cognates

The English word is cognate with Dutch lieden (“people”), lui(den) (“people”), German Leute (“people”), Norwegian lyd (“people”), Polish lud (“people”), Russian люди (ljudi, “people”), West Frisian lie (“people”).

Noun

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lede (plural lede)

  1. (obsolete) A man; a person.
Usage notes
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  • In modern English, the word is only found as a conscious archaism.
Alternative forms
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Etymology 2

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The lede of this article is its first paragraph, which says, “One of the greatest sensations in Whitman county was caused yesterday afternoon when Sheriff Canutt arrested Dr. T. D. Ferguson upon a charge of manslaughter. The information says that Dr. Ferguson committed the crime on April 21, 1904, ‘by unlawfully, willfully and feloniously slaying and killing one Agnes R. Downs.’” The hed (i.e., the headline, using a similarly misspelled form) says, “A prominent physician is charged with manslaughter”.

A deliberate misspelling of lead, originally used in instructions given to printers to indicate which paragraphs constitute the lede, intended to avoid confusion with the word lead which may actually appear in the text of an article.[3][4] Compare dek (“subhead”) (modified from deck) and hed (“headline”) (from head).

Noun

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lede (plural ledes)

  2. (chiefly US, journalism) The introductory paragraph or paragraphs of a newspaper, or a news or other type of article; the lead or lead-in. [from mid 20th c.]
    Synonym: intro
    • 1979, J. W. Click, Russell N. Baird, Magazine Editing and Production, 2nd edition, Dubuque, Iowa: W[illiam] C. Brown, →ISBN, page 90:
      Readers usually see the lead picture and read its caption first, before reading the lede of the article, so the article lede should not be a repetition of the caption.
    • 1999, Mike Godwin, “Who’s a Journalist?—II: Welcome the New Journalists on the Internet”, in Robert H. Giles, Robert W. Snyder, editors, What’s Next?: Problems & Prospects of Journalism, New Brunswick, N.J.; London: Transaction Publishers, published 2001, →ISBN, page 46:
      "How can Mr. On-line Guy learn to be a journalist if he didn't go through what I went through?" they [newspaper journalists] ask. "I needed the city editor to tell me how to write a graceful sentence, and I was a year into the job before I could craft a decent lede?"
    • 2007 February, Brian McGrory, chapter 40, in Strangled, New York, N.Y.: Atria Books, →ISBN, page 314:
      I was thrilled to be in possession of this nugget, which could probably take over the lede of my story. This essentially and truly implicated one of the most respected homicide detectives in Boston, all based on my initial tip.
    • 2008 October 15, Michael Tomasky, “Michael Tomasky’s Blog: This Morning’s Stuff You Need to Know”, in The Guardian‎[3], London: Guardian News & Media, archived from the original on 6 March 2016:
      The lede (as we spell it) story in today's NYT [The New York Times] is all about their new poll showing that [John] McCain is hurting himself, not [Barack] Obama, with the attacks. […] If something's the lede in the NYT, it tends to get discussed on cable TV all day, etc.
    • 2018, Branden Salas, “Reporting for Print Media”, in Basic Concept of Journalism, Waltham Abbey, Essex: Ed-Tech Press, published 2020, →ISBN, page 253:
      Like all forms of writing, there's no hard and fast rule about what makes a great lede. A good lede changes depending on the story you're writing. […] Ledes vary wildly, but you'll start to notice patterns and, more importantly, what kinds of ledes you like and feel are effective.
    • 2019, Naveed Saleh, “Narrative: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends”, in The Writer’s Guide to Self-editing: Essential Tips for Online and Print Publishing, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, part VII (Global Considerations), page 225:
      Here are some different types of ledes: […] · Scenario ledes use narrative elements to describe a place of particular importance to the story. / · Narrative ledes begin at a chronological beginning. […] · First-person anecdotal ledes begin with a relevant anecdote that involves the writer. Service and celebrity pieces often begin with first-person ledes.
    • 2021 March 1, Dwight Garner, “‘The Empathy Diaries’ Is a Beautiful Memoir About the Life of the Mind and the Life of the Senses”, in The New York Times‎[4], →ISSN:
      [first line] Why bury the lede? Sherry Turkle’s memoir, “The Empathy Diaries,” is a beautiful book.
Usage notes
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  • The word, which has entered ordinary usage, was originally journalistic jargon. In 1990, the American author and journalist William Safire (1929–2009) was still able to say: “You will not find this spelling in dictionaries; it is still an insiders' variant, steadily growing in frequency of use. […] Will lede break out of its insider status and find its way into general use? […] To suggest this is becoming standard would be misledeing […] But it has earned its place as a variant spelling, soon to overtake the original spelling for the beginning of a news article.”[5]
Derived terms
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Translations
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introductory paragraph or paragraphs of a newspaper or other news article

See also

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Etymology 3

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See lead.

Verb

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lede

  1. Obsolete spelling of lead (“to guide”).

References

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  1. ^ “lẹ̄d(e, n.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Compare “† lede, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
  3. ^ “lede, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2019; “lede, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  4. ^ Alternatively, it has been claimed that the word was misspelled to avoid confusion with lead (“strip of type metal used for positioning type in the frame”) (pronounced /lɛd/): see “The Maven’s Word of the Day: lede”, in Random House‎[1], 28 November 2000, archived from the original on 17 April 2001.
  5. ^ William Safire (18 November 1990), “On language: (HED) folo my lede (UNHED)”, in The New York Times Magazine‎[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 July 2021, section 6, page 22.

Further reading

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