Etymologically
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Dame

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Pronunciation

Forms

Dame f (genitive Dame, plural Damen)[1] In the 17th and 18th centuries the French plural Dames was often used, in the 18th century also Low German Damens, later only in jest.[2][3] Until the early 18th century the Italian and Spanish form Dama was also current, especially in Upper German.[4][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French dame (“lady”), borrowed at the end of the 16th century, beside Italian dama and Spanish dama.[5][2][6] The Old French dame comes from Medieval Latin domna, the syncopated form of Latin domina (“mistress of the house”), the feminine of dominus (“master of the house”), from domus (“house”).[2][5][3] Wahrig explains the weakened vowels of the French word by its unstressed use before names, beside the fuller domme.[7] The regular outcomes of the Latin word in Italian and Spanish are donna and dueña.[3] The French word occasionally appears in Middle High German texts, but only within French phrases.[3]

For the uses in games DWB2 assumes a borrowing of its own from French in the first half of the 17th century, and Pfeifer allows for one.[4][3] The name of the board game is unconnected with Middle Low German dōmspil, which belongs to dōm (“judgement, law”).[3] The Duden and Paul explain it from the piece that is crowned with a second one.[6][8] Kluge thinks the word first named the playing piece in general and was only later adapted to “lady”: the crowned piece was at first called dame damée, “piece on a piece”, and the old French word for a piece was very probably a Germanic, perhaps Dutch, word, the same as Damm.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record (1592) speaks of knights who want to rescue ihre dame, in the sense “beloved noblewoman, mistress (of a knight)”.[2][8] Into the 17th century it was a fashionable word of courtly-gallant poetry after the French romances of chivalry, a counterpart to Galan and Kavalier.[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

From the 17th century Dame was the usual title of women at court and of the nobility, and only from the end of the 18th century was it applied to middle-class women, partly taking the place of Frau.[6][3][8] Also in the 17th century a euphemistic sense “mistress, prostitute” appeared, as in the diminutive Dämchen, and returned in the second half of the 19th century.[3][6] Kaspar Stieler (1691) already noted that the word had become disreputable.[9] Fontane wrote in Effi Briest (1895) that »Dame« hat beinah immer einen Beigeschmack “‘Dame’ almost always has an aftertaste”.[8] It has also meant a woman's partner role at a dance since the 17th century.[8]

From the lady came the names in games: the board game Dammen-Spiel in 1616, the playing card with a lady's picture in the first half of the 17th century, replacing the older “queen”, and the strongest chess piece in 1754, for older Königin.[8][5][3] Hungarian borrowed dáma “draughts” in 1662, and Czech and Slovak have dáma for both the lady and the game.[10]

Timeline

  • 1592 – First record, as the beloved lady of a knight.[2][8]
  • 1601 – The Italian or Spanish form Dama is recorded.[2]
  • 1616 – First record of the board game, as Dammen-Spiel.[8][11]
  • 1662 – Hungarian dáma “draughts” is recorded.[10]
  • 1691 – Stieler notes that the word has become disreputable.[9]
  • 1754 – First record as the name of the chess piece.[8]
  • 1802 – Dame des Hauses “lady of the house” is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A woman, as the usual polite word in social life;[12][1] meine Damen und Herren “ladies and gentlemen”: Die Dame am Fenster wartet schon lange.[12][1]
  2. A lady: a cultivated, elegant woman: Sie benimmt sich wie eine Dame.;[12][1] die Dame des Hauses is the hostess.[12][1]
  3. (chess) The queen.[12][1]
  4. (card games) The queen, the card ranking third.[12][1]
  5. (no plural) Draughts, checkers: Wir spielen Dame.[12][1]
  6. (draughts) The crowned double piece, gained by reaching the opponent's back row.[12][13]

Word family

  • Damespiel
  • damenhaft
  • Damenwahl
  • Hofdame
  • Herzensdame
  • Tischdame
  • Madame
  • Domäne
  • dominieren
  • Dom
  • English dame

Usage notes

Die Dame seines Herzens, the woman a man loves, has been in use since the 18th century, and eine Dame von Welt is a woman of the world.[2][12] Jemandes alte Dame is jocular for someone's mother.[12] The English title Dame of the British orders of chivalry is pronounced /deɪm/ as an English word.[14][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  4. ^ a b Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 6, 126
  5. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 178
  6. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 208
  7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  9. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 702
  10. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  11. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  13. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  14. ^ Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag