It makes sense if you consider that intel kept flip-flopping between LD (load; 4004, 8008, 8085) and MOV (move; 8080, 8086) semantics, but didn't change the syn

It makes sense if you consider that intel kept flip-flopping between LD (load; 4004, 8008, 8085) and MOV (move; 8080, 8086) semantics, but didn't change the syntax layout. 'LD EAX, EBX' makes perfect sense, or would have, but 8086 landed on a 'move' generation, and stuck there.