The word actually comes from the Old English forms for "loaf" (bread) and "ward" (used to mean "protector", although today it means "one who is protected"). So a "lord" or "loaf ward" was originally "the one who protected the loaf". A mesne lord was a lord in the feudal system who had vassals who held land from him, but who was himself the vassal of a higher lord. The one who ruled over mesne lords was sometimes called an overlord. This higher lord was sometimes the king.