madamă

Forms

madamă f (plural madame)^[1] The variant madam (genitive lui madam or madamei) is used before a surname; the vocative is madam or, disparagingly, madamo.^[2][3] A popular variant is mădamă, and Scriban notes a neuter plural mădămuri, more disparaging still.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French madame, as all the dictionaries agree;^{[5][3][2][6][1]} Ciorănescu compares Italian madama.^[5] The French word comes from Old French ma dame (“my lady”).^[4][7]

Aromanian madamã has a different source: Papahagi takes it from Italian, and Pascu from Modern Greek μαντάμα (madáma) and Turkish madama.^{[8][9][10][5]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a document of 1782 published in the Academy's historical series.^[6] MDA2 and the DLR quote Dionisie Eclesiarhul's chronicle (written in 1814), where a French envoy came with „madama lui” “his wife” and other great persons „cu madamele lor” “with their wives”.^[2][11][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was “wife”, a Gallicism now obsolete.^[6][11] As a title before a surname, madam replaced doamnă “Mrs” in familiar speech, but was never admitted into formal Romanian.^[5][4] Used alone, the vocative madamă or madamo became disparaging.^[11]

In the 19th century the word named the foreign women hired by wealthy families: a governess, a housekeeper, and in hotels a chambermaid.^[6][3][12] Șăineanu explained the slighting tone as inherent in a foreign title.^[13] It also came to mean a woman of easy virtue and the keeper of a brothel.^[3][2][6] Ciorănescu records the verb mădămi “to treat as a lady; to play the lady”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1782 – first record, in a document published by the Academy.^[6]
• 1814 – “wife” in Dionisie Eclesiarhul's chronicle.^[2][6]
• 1931 – CADE: lady (mostly ironic), foreign nanny or governess, prostitute.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (familiar, now usually madam, before a surname or first name) A polite title for a married woman: Mrs, madam.^[3][2]
2. A woman employed in a wealthy household; a chambermaid in a hotel.^[3][12]
3. (obsolete) A foreign governess.^[3][2]
4. (obsolete) Wife.^[3][2]
5. (pejorative) A woman of easy virtue; especially the keeper of a brothel.^[3][2]

Word family

• mădămi

Related words

• damă
• doamnă
• French madame

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1414
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 609
4. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 764
5. ^ a b c d e Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. madamă
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. madámă
7. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
9. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
11. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. madamă
12. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 375
14. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. madamă