The English household was named after its bread. A lord was once a hlāfweard, a loaf-ward, the one who kept the bread; a lady was a hlǣfdīge, usually read as the loaf-kneader, the one who made it. Companion arrived later, from Latin: com and panis, the person you share bread with, and even that was a translation of an older Gothic word built on the same loaf. So the two titles went to whoever guarded the bread and whoever made it. The word for a friend went to whoever was simply there when it was eaten.