Lady

This is a title being wide in its legal, and still wider in its ordinary signification. It properly belongs to the daughters of all peers above the rank of a Viscount, and is, by courtesy now amounting almost to law, extended to the wives of Baronets and Knights of every degree. It does not descend lower than this, as a title attached to the name, but, in the language of politeness, it is the term by which every woman is spoken of who holds a respectable rank in life.

In the present instance, the etymology of the word is favourable to its originally general application, but its literal meaning is equally inapplicable to its legal possessors and to its usurpers. It is said to be compounded of two Saxon words, one of which, hlæf, signifying loaf and the other, dæy,  day, because, in very early times, it was the custom for the mistress of an affluent house to distribute bread with her own  hands to her poor neighbours, once or more often in the course of the week.

As in common conversation the terms Lord and Lordship are indiscriminately used to all peers under the rank of Duke, so the parallel titles of Lady and Ladyship are employed with a corresponding latitude. It has been remarked already, that the female title descends much lower and the distinction of your Ladyship without impropriety, be employed through all the variety of intervening ranks, from Marchioness to the wife of a simple Knight, inclusive.