 Its component parts literally translate as "place holder," or as a direct cognate, "stead holder" (in modern Dutch "stad" means "city", but the older meaning of "stad" – also "stede" – was "place", and it is a cognate of English "stead", as "in stead of"), it was a term for a "steward" or "lieutenant".Note, however, that is not the word for the military rank of lieutenant, which is "luitenant" in Dutch.