mademoiselle

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French mademoiselle,^[2][3][4][5] originally written separately,^[2][6] from Old French ma damoisele (“my (young) lady”),^[7][8] formed from ma (“my”) and damoisele (“young lady”), now French demoiselle.^{[2][9][10][11]} Etymonline gives the Middle English form as madamoisell,^[3] and the OED notes that the French word, when written as one, was spelled madamoiselle until the end of the 15th century.^[2] The Old French noun, recorded in Anglo-Norman from about 1135 as dameisele,^[12] was formed anew from dame in place of the popular doncele,^[2] which comes from Vulgar Latin *dominicella, a diminutive of Latin domina (“mistress, lady”), the feminine of dominus (“lord”).^[2][9][13] The Late Latin diminutive is also the source of Italian donzella and Spanish doncella.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A title or polite form of address for an unmarried Frenchwoman: about 1450, in an English translation of the Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry.^[2][4] Barnhart treats this as an isolated Middle English example and dates the word from 1642, in Milton.^[4][14]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that in France the title was formerly given to any woman who was not of the nobility.^[3] From 1642, in Milton, the word was used of the woman herself, an unmarried Frenchwoman, and in particular of a foreign maidservant, a sense now obsolete, and of a French governess;^[2][15] in 1712 the Spectator used it for a dressmaker's dummy.^[2] From 1649 it was, in French history, the title of the eldest daughter of the king's eldest brother, who was called Monsieur, and later of the king's eldest daughter.^[2][15] In the southern United States, apparently after North American French usage, it names a croaker fish, recorded from 1882.^[2][15] The contracted form ma’amselle is recorded from 1794, and mamsell by 1842.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – a title or form of address for an unmarried Frenchwoman.^[2]
• 1642 – an unmarried Frenchwoman; a foreign maidservant (obsolete); a French governess.^[2][4]
• 1649 – in French history, the title of the eldest daughter of Monsieur, the king's eldest brother.^[2]
• 1712 – a dressmaker's dummy (obsolete).^[2]
• 1794 – the contracted form ma’amselle.^[3]
• 1882 – US, a croaker fish of the southern states.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A title or polite form of address for a girl or an unmarried woman in a French-speaking country, like English miss; abbreviated Mlle: Mademoiselle Leclerc will see you now.^[9][16][15]
2. An unmarried Frenchwoman: Two mademoiselles from Lyon shared our table.^[7][16][2]
3. A French governess or female French teacher.^[7][16][15]
4. (French history) The title of the eldest daughter of the French king's eldest brother, and later of the king's eldest daughter.^[2][15]
5. (US) The silver perch, a croaker of the southern United States.^[2][15]

Related words

• madam
• damsel
• demoiselle
• madame
• madonna
• dame

Usage notes

The plural is mesdemoiselles or mademoiselles.^[16][7][15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins