Etymologically
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madam

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Pronunciation

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]

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