dame

Pronunciation

• IPA: /deɪm/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French dame (“lady, mistress, wife”),^[2][3][4] from Late Latin domna, Latin domina (“mistress of the house, lady”),^[2][3][5] the feminine of dominus, lord, from domus, house (see dome).^[2][5] In Old French the a developed from the o of domina when the word was unstressed before a name.^[2] Compare madam.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A female ruler or superior, a mother superior: probably before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle, before 1225 in the OED.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

A lady or female ruler is from about 1200,^[2] and a mother from about 1200 in Etymonline.^[3] The lady of a house, a housewife, is from about 1330,^[6] and a woman in general, especially a mature or married one, from the 14th century;^[3] Middle English also used it with personifications such as Dame Fortune and Dame Nature.^[3] It became the legal title of the wife of a knight or baronet,^[3][7] and in Britain the title of a woman holding certain orders of chivalry.^[7] The comic middle-aged woman of pantomime, played by a man, is from 1902,^[6] and the slang sense, any woman, is attested by 1902 in American English, though it is also found in English dialect.^[2][3]

Timeline

• before 1225 – a female ruler.^[6]
• c. 1330 – a housewife.^[6]
• 14th century – a woman.^[3]
• 1902 – a woman (US slang); the pantomime dame.^[2][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (UK) The title of a woman holding certain orders of chivalry, or of the wife of a knight.
2. (archaic) A woman of rank; a lady, or the mistress of a household.
3. (slang, chiefly US) A woman.
4. (UK) A comic older woman in pantomime, played by a man.

Word family

• dame school

Related words

• dam
• damsel
• demoiselle
• dominate
• dominatrix
• domine
• dominie
• donna
• grandam
• grande dame
• madam
• dome
• domain

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins