Hlaf is the old word for means loaf. Daege is the old word for dairy. Together, they became hlafdige (or loaf maid / kneader of bread). It's interesting to notice all the words in modern day English that have been derived by combining two or more words together.
In phonology, syncope (Greek: syn- + koptein “to strike, cut off”) is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel. Various sorts of colloquial reductions might be called "syncope". It is also called compression.
The word lady is a civil term of respect for a woman, specifically the female equivalent to gentleman or lord, and in many contexts a term for any adult woman. Once confined to usage when specifically addressing women of high social class or status; over the last 300 years, the term has spread to embrace every adult woman.
This graph visually shows the origin of the word lady:

This graph shows the usage of the word lady from 1800 to 2010: