Heavy or bulky things being carried or transported; informal term meaning 'a lot of' or 'many'; third person singular of 'load.'
From Old English lād meaning 'way, journey, course,' related to 'lead.' The sense of 'burden carried' developed in Middle English, and the informal meaning of 'lots' emerged in the 20th century from the idea of a full load.
The journey from 'loads' meaning literal heavy cargo to meaning 'lots of something' shows how our language draws from physical experience to describe abstract quantities. It's delightfully concrete - when we say 'loads of fun,' we're unconsciously comparing fun to something heavy and substantial you'd need to carry.
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