madam

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English madame,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French madame, originally the phrase ma dame (“my lady”),^[4][5][6][3] from ma (“my”) and dame (“lady”) (the source of dame).^[4][6][7] The French phrase goes back to Latin mea domina (“my lady”),^[5][8][9] from meus (“my”) and domina (“mistress of the house”),^[10][7] the feminine of dominus (“lord, master of a household”),^[10] from domus (“house”).^[7] The Anglo-Norman form is recorded from the second quarter of the 12th century, meaning "(my) lady".^[11] The OED compares Italian madonna (the source of madonna) and the medieval Latin phrase.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A respectful form of address to a woman, at first used by servants to their mistress and by others to a lady of rank: about 1300.^[4][5] Barnhart dates it probably before 1300,^[12][7] and Merriam-Webster to the 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that metrical evidence shows the original stress on the second syllable, with a long vowel, lasting into the 16th century, and that the spelling madame stayed common until about 1600; after that the stress moved to the first syllable, the second vowel was reduced, and the contracted form ma'am arose by the late 17th century.^[4] The spelling madame was then kept mostly for a French title.^[4][6] The word became a conventional address to women of any rank, though chiefly to married women.^[5] From the late 16th century it also meant a lady of rank (1543, now obsolete)^[4] and, often disparagingly, an affected fine lady (1598).^[4][5][6] Hoad dates the sense "kept mistress" to the 18th century and "hussy" to the 19th;^[6] the sense of a courtesan or prostitute is recorded from 1719,^[5][7] and that of a woman who keeps a brothel by 1871.^[5] Johnson (1755) called it "the term of compliment used in address to ladies of every degree".^[13] In English dialect it was a title prefixed to the surname of a squire's wife or another gentlewoman instead of "Mrs.", and in Somerset the title of a parish schoolmistress.^[14] In Charleston and elsewhere in the American South, Lyell observed in 1849, Madam was the title of a mother whose son had married.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a polite form of address to a woman.^[4][5]
• before 1375 – prefixed to a woman's first name.^[4]
• 1543 – a lady of rank (obsolete by 1806).^[4]
• 1598 – an affected fine lady.^[4]
• 1622 – verb, to address as madam.^[4]
• 1647 – the mistress of a house.^[4]
• 1719 – a courtesan or prostitute.^[5][7]
• 1871 – a woman who keeps a brothel.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A polite form of address to a woman, used in place of her name: Can I help you find anything, madam?^[15][3][4]
2. A title placed before the name of an office held by a woman: Madam Speaker.^[4][3]
3. A woman who runs a brothel.^[15][5][7]
4. (British, informal) A precocious or pompous little girl: She's turning into a proper little madam.^[15][6]
5. The mistress of a household; in South African use, the madam, the lady of the house.^[15][4]

Verb

1. (archaic) To address someone as madam.^[3][4][16]

Related words

• ma'am
• madame
• mademoiselle
• dame
• madonna
• donna
• domain
• dominion

Usage notes

As a form of address the plural is usually mesdames, while madams is used for the other senses.^[15][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press