Lardener

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for the household servant responsible for keeping and managing the larder where food is stored
2. Historically, the servant who oversaw the store of meat and provisions kept in a pantry or larder
3. An obsolete name for the steward who looked after the food supplies held in a larder room

Etymology: "Lardener" is an English word for a room or cupboard where food is stored, a larder by another name. It comes from the Old French "lardier," which meant the same thing and was itself formed from "lard," fat, because cured pork fat was one of the chief things kept there. The Latin source is "lardum," bacon or animal fat, and the same root gave English "lard" and French "lard" in its basic sense. The "-ener" ending is the unusual part. English has "larder" in common use, and "lardener" is a variant that appeared in the same sort of household vocabulary, with the -ener ending that sometimes appears in words for people who keep or handle things. The word's meaning therefore sits between a place and a person: the room, and the figure who looked after it. Dictionaries record it as a rare, older spelling rather than a separate formation with its own history.

Synonyms: pantryman, steward