An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Lade

by Friedrich Kluge

Lade, feminine, ‘chest, box, press,’ from Middle High German lade (Old High German *lada, *hlada?), feminine, ‘receptacle, chest’; Lade is properly an ‘arrangement for loading’; the corresponding Old Icelandic hlaþa means ‘barn, storehouse,’ so too Middle English laþe, whence English lathe. For further references compare the verb laden. It is also probable that Lade is connected with the following substantive Laden; in that case the primary meaning would be ‘trunk made of boards.’