ABSTRACT
A lad was originally a serving man or attendant, a sense which had faded by 1700. By the fifteenth century lad had come to mean ‘boy’, though as with boy, the word could be applied to a man of any age. This was particularly so when used as a term of address in the form ‘my lad’. Special senses included the Scottish ‘lover’, a meaning which was current in the eighteenth century, and the implication of special vigour and spirit which became associated with the word in the sixteenth century. This is still found in statements like ‘He’s quite a lad,’ where ‘He’s quite a boy’ would not have the same meaning, nor would ‘He’s quite a man’. In modern times the vocative use of ‘lad’ is especially associated with the north of England, and it can still be applied to a man of any age if the speaker is of the same age or older than the person addressed. You’re very welcome, lad, I’m sure,’ says the mother of a girl to a visiting boy-friend in When the Boat Comes In, by James Mitchell. In The Business of Loving, by Godfrey Smith, ‘good lad’ is used to a boy in his early teens, avoiding the condescension of ‘good boy”.
