LOAF, properly the mass of bread made at one baking, hence the smaller portions into which the bread is divided for retailing. These are of uniform size (see [Baking]) and are named according to shape (“tin loaf,” “cottage loaf,” &c.), weight (“quartern loaf,” &c.), or quality of flour (“brown loaf,” &c.). “Loaf,” O.E. hláf, is a word common to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. Laib, or Leib, Dan. lev, Goth, hlaifs; similar words with the same meaning are found in Russian, Finnish and Lettish, but these may have been adapted from Teutonic. The ultimate origin is unknown, and it is uncertain whether “bread” (q.v.) or “loaf” is the earlier in usage. The O.E. hláf is seen in “Lammas” and in “lord,” i.e. hlaford for hlafweard, the loaf-keeper, or “bread-warder”; cf. the O.E. word for a household servant hláf-æta, loaf-eater. The Late Lat. companio, one who shares, panis, bread, Eng. “companion,” was probably an adaptation of the Goth, gahlaiba, O.H. Ger. gileipo, messmate, comrade. The word “loaf” is also used in sugar manufacture, and is applied to sugar shaped in a mass like a cone, a “sugar-loaf,” and to the small knobs into which refined sugar is cut, or “loaf-sugar.”
The etymology of the verb “to loaf,” i.e. to idle, lounge about, and the substantive “loafer,” an idler, a lazy vagabond, has been much discussed. R. H. Dana (Two Years before the Mast, 1840) called the word “a newly invented Yankee word.” J. R. Lowell (Biglow Papers, 2nd series, Introd.) explains it as German in origin, and connects it with laufen, to run, and states that the dialectical form lofen is used in the sense of “saunter up and down.” This explanation has been generally accepted. The New English Dictionary rejects it, however, and states that laufen is not used in this sense, but points out that the German Landläufer, the English obsolete word “landlouper,” or “landloper,” one who wanders about the country, a vagrant or vagabond, has a resemblance in meaning. J. S. Farmer and W. E. Henley’s Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues gives as French synonyms of “loafer,” chevalier de la loupe and loupeur.
LOAM (O.E. lám; the word appears in Dut. leem and Ger. Lehm; the ultimate origin is the root lai-, meaning “to be sticky,” which is seen in the cognate “lime,” Lat. limus, mud, clay), a fertile soil composed of a mixture of sand, clay, and decomposed vegetable matter, the quantity of sand being sufficient to prevent the clay massing together. The word is also used of a mixture of sand, clay and straw, used for making casting-moulds and bricks, and for plastering walls, &c. (see [Soil]).
LOAN (adapted from the Scandinavian form of a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Swed. lån, Icel. lán, Dut. leen; the O.E. laén appears in “lend,” the ultimate source is seen in the root of Gr. λείπειν and Lat. linquere, to leave), that which is lent; a sum of money or something of value lent for a specific or indefinite period when it or its equivalent is to be repaid or returned, usually at a specified rate of interest (see [Usury] and [Money-Lending]). For public loans see [Finance], [National Debt], and the various sections on finance under the names of the various countries.
LOANDA (São Paulo de Loanda), a seaport of West Africa, capital of the Portuguese province of Angola, situated in 8° 48′ S., 13° 7′ E., on a bay between the rivers Bango and Kwanza. The bay, protected from the surf by a long narrow island of sand, is backed by a low sandy cliff which at its southern end sweeps out with a sharp curve and terminates in a bold point crowned by Fort San Miguel. The depth of water at the entrance to the bay is 20 fathoms or more. The bay has silted up considerably, but there is a good anchorage about 1½ m. from the shore in 7 to 14 fathoms, besides cranage accommodation and a floating dock. Vessels discharge into lighters, and are rarely delayed on account of the weather. A part of the town lies on the foreshore, but the more important buildings—the government offices, the governor’s residence, the palace of the bishop of Angola, and the hospital—are situated on higher ground. Most of the European houses are large stone buildings of one storey with red tile roofs. Loanda possesses a meteorological observatory, public garden, tramways, gas-works, statues to Salvador Correia de Sá, who wrested Angola from the Dutch, and to Pedro Alexandrino, a former governor, and is the starting-point of the railway to Ambaca and Malanje.
Loanda was founded in 1576, and except between 1640 and 1648, when it was occupied by the Dutch, has always been in Portuguese possession. It was for over two centuries the chief centre of the slave trade between Portuguese West Africa and Brazil. During that time the traffic of the port was of no small account, and after a period of great depression consequent on the suppression of that trade, more legitimate commerce was developed. There is a regular service of steamers between the port and Lisbon, Liverpool and Hamburg. The town has some 15,000 inhabitants, including a larger European population than any other place on the west coast of Africa. It is connected by submarine cables with Europe and South Africa. Fully half the imports and export trade of Angola (q.v.) passes through Loanda.