lode Look up lode at Dictionary.com
original M.E. spelling of load (q.v.), and custodian of most of the original meaning. Differentiation in sense took place 16c. Mining sense of "vein of metal ore" is from c.1600, from notion of miners "following" it through the rock. Lodestone "magnetic oxide of iron" (1510s) was used as a magnet to guide mariners; lodestar (late 14c.) was an old name for the pole star (cf. O.N. leišarstjarna) as the star that "leads the way" in navigation.