Also 4–6 lood(e-, 5–6 lod-, 6 loade-, (lodes-); see STAR sb. β. north. and Sc. 5–6 lade-, 6 leid-, laidsterne, laydsterre. [f. load, LODE + STAR sb. Cf. ON. leiðarstjarna.]
1. A star that shows the way; esp. the pole star.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1201. Calistopee … Was turned from a womman to a Bere And after was she maad the loode sterre.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 199. Þe sterre þat ladde þe Grees whan þey seilled þider [sc. to Hesperia] and was her loode sterre, Hespera, þat is Venus.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVIII. 95. Wederwise sheepmen now … Han no by-leyue to þe lyft ne to þe lood-sterre.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 751. Schipe-mene … Lukkes to þe lade-sterne whene þe lyghte faillez.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), xvii. 180. The Sterre of the See, that is unmevable and that is toward the Northe, that we clepen the Lode Sterre.
c. 1511. 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.), Introd. 28/1. Yat sowth layd sterre sawe we fourth with.
a. 1529. Skelton, Col. Cloute, 1260. Tyll the cost be clere And the lode starre appere.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (1858), I. 16. Tha had fund rycht far Furth in the north, law vnder the laid star Ane plesand yle.
a. 1571. Jewel, On 2 Thess. (1611), 150. The Master of the ship seemeth to be idle … Hee … looketh vpon the load star, and in appearance doth nothing.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. I. xx. (1636), 321. The Load starre, or North starre.
1616. Bullokar, Lodestar, a Starre that guideth one.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1692), 183. The Load-stone and the Load-star depend both upon this [viz. the steadiness of the earth’s axis].
2. fig. A ‘guiding star’; that on which one’s attention or hopes are fixed.
This sense appears to have been revived at the beginning of the 19th c. after a lapse of some 150 years.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 1392. Biseche I yow myn hertes lady fre. That herevpon ye wolden wryte me, For loue of god my righte lode sterre.
1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, I. iii. (1494), B ij. To the hauyn of lyf she was the lode sterre.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxvii. 10. O hye trivmphing peradiss of joy, Lodsteir and lamp of eivry lustines.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XVIII. (Percy Soc.), 83. The bright lodes sterre Of my true herte.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, Prol. 8. Lanterne, leid sterne, mirrour, and a per se.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron. (1807–8), III. 134. A paterne in princehood, a lodestarre in honour, and mirrour of magnificence.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 183. Your eyes are loadstarres.
1641. Milton, Reform., I. Wks. 1851, III. 21. Since hee must needs bee the Load-starre of Reformation.
1813. Scott, Trierm., Introd. v. The load-star of each heart and eye, My fair one leads the glittering ball.
1818. Shelley, Rev. Islam, II. xxi. An orphan with my parents lived, whose eyes Were loadstars of delight, which drew me home When I might wander forth.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xix. IV. 274. The feather in the hat of Lewis was the loadstar of victory.
1861. M. Arnold, Pop. Educ. France, p. xxiii. The French Revolution became an historic epoch for the world, and France the lode-star of Continental democracy.
1871. Rossetti, Poems, Jenny, 18. Whose person or whose purse may be The lodestar of your reverie.
