dame
English
Etymology
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Judi_Dench_at_the_BAFTAs_2007.jpg/220px-Judi_Dench_at_the_BAFTAs_2007.jpg)
From Middle English dame, dam (“noble lady”), from Old French dame (“lady; term of address for a woman; the queen in card games and chess”), from Latin domina (“mistress of the house”),[1] feminine form of dominus (“lord, master, ruler; owner of a residence”), or from Latin domus (“home, house”). Doublet of domina and donna.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /deɪm/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -eɪm
Noun
dame (plural dames)
- (British) Usually capitalized as Dame: a title equivalent to Sir for a female knight.
- Dame Edith Sitwell
- 2009, Marcia Pointon, “Something Rich and Strange”, in Brilliant Effects: A Cultural History of Gem Stones and Jewellery, New Haven, Conn., London: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Stories Touching Stones), page 144:
- The cover of the modern cd, issued by EMI Classics with Dame Janet Baker and Sir John Barbirolli in 1965, carries a portrait of Dame Janet wearing a long coral necklace in reference to the song 'Where the Corals lie' to words by Richard Garnett (1835–1906).
- (British) A matron at a school, especially Eton College.
- 2005, Paul Shrimpton, “Darnell’s School”, in A Catholic Eton?: Newman’s Oratory School, Leominster, Herefordshire: Gracewing, →ISBN, page 88:
- Even though the dames’ houses were being gradually phased out at Eton, [John Henry] Newman was enthusiastic about the arrangement since it met one of the promoters’ key demands; besides, he had experienced something similar as a boy at Ealing School, where the boarding houses were also under the jurisdiction of dames. The Ealing dames ensured that boys were properly dressed and cared for them when sick, and they also ran the tuck shops.
- 2016, David Noy, “Parents, Childhood, Youth (1739–1760)”, in Dr Johnson’s Friend and Robert Adam’s Client Topham Beauclerk, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 14:
- As he [Fréderic Guyaz] worked for Topham [Beauclerk] while he was at Eton, it is likely that Topham was a day-boarder there, living at home in Windsor. His Eton "dame" was Mrs. Bland; day-boarders were allocated to a dame at whose house they took their meals.
- (British, theater) In traditional pantomime: a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag.
- 1870 January 29, “English Pantomime. In Two Parts.—Part II.”, in William, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art, volume VII (Fourth Series), number 318, London, Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, →OCLC, chapter X, pages 73 and 74:
- [page 73, column 2] Mother Goose was produced on the 29th of December; Simmons playing the Old Dame; […] [page 74, column 1] Bugle condemns her to the ducking-stool, a sentence opposed by Colin, who espouses the cause of the Old Dame, who, escaping from her persecutors, puts an end to the wedding festivities by raising the ghost of the Squire's first wife.
- 2013, Maureen Hughes, “Welcome to the Magical World of Pantomime”, in A History of Pantomime, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword History, →ISBN, page 34:
- The Dame in a Panto is generally a large, gregarious and out-going man who plays the part of a large, gregarious and out-going woman. […] Every successful actor who plays the part of Dame in Panto knows that the secret of his success is that it should be obvious that it is a man playing a part, for this is not a Drag act; the intention is not to be as womanly as possible, but always to be 'a feller in a frock'. […] Oh how everyone loves the Panto Dame for she is Panto.
- (US, dated, informal, slightly derogatory) A woman.
- 1903 March, Guy Wetmore Carryl, The Lieutenant-Governor: A Novel, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Riverside Press, Cambridge [Mass.], →OCLC, page 37:
- I can see that would be the kind of a chap that the dames would stand for everlastingly.
- 1949, Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), Richard Rodgers (music), “There Is Nothing Like a Dame”, in South Pacific; published in Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), Oscar Hammerstein II, Joshua Logan (book), Albert Sirmay [i.e., Albert Szirmai] (vocal score editor), South Pacific. A Musical Play. [...] Adapted from James A. Michener’s [...] Tales of the South Pacific [...], New York, N.Y.: Williamson Music; Milwaukee, Wis.: Hal Leonard, 1949, →OCLC, page 30:
- There is nothin' like a dame / Nothin' in the world. / There is nothin' you can name / That is anythin' like a dame.
- (archaic) A lady, a woman.
- 1576, George Whetstone, “The Castle of Delight: […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, […], London: […] [H. Middleton] for Robert Waley, →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of Regard, […] (Illustrations of Early English Poetry; vol. 2, no. 2), London: Privately printed, [1867?], →OCLC, page 55:
- Now, thou, deare dame, that workſte theſe ſweete effectes in mee, / Vouchsafe my zeale, that onely ſeeke to ſerve and honour thee.
- a. 1638, Ben Jonson, “The Twelvth Night’s Revells”, in Peter Cunningham, edited by David Laing, Inigo Jones and Ben Jonson: Being the Life of Inigo Jones. […], London: Printed for the Shakespeare Society, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 101:
- [T]hough they were first-form'd dames of Earth, / And in whose sparcklinge and refulgent eyes / The glorious sonne did still delight to rise; […]
- 1684, Edward Ravenscroft, Dame Dobson: Or, The Cunning Woman. A Comedy as it is Acted at the Duke’s Theatre, London: Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh, […], →OCLC, act I, scene xi, page 25:
- And do you think my Dame Dobſon don't know a little better than you? She tells you, you need ſay no more, and 'tis an affront to her Art not to believe her; and I'le not ſee my Dame affronted.
- 1835 April, [Nathaniel Hawthorne], “Young Goodman Brown”, in The New-England Magazine, volume VIII, Boston, Mass.: E. R. Broaders, […], →OCLC, page 252:
- [H]e pointed his staff at a female figure on the path, in whom goodman Brown recognized a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism, in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser, jointly with the minister and deacon Gookin.
- 1849, Wolfgang Menzel, “First Period. Heathen Antiquity.”, in Mrs. George Horrocks, transl., The History of Germany, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. [...] Translated from the Fourth German Edition. [...] In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Henry G[eorge] Bohn, […], →OCLC, part I (Origin and Manners of the Ancient Germans), section XX (Wolen and Walkyren), page 45:
- The poetical relation between the pagan warrior and his celestial bride changed, in course of time, to that between the Christian knight and his ladye-bright, who also was not always an earthly dame, but the holy Virgin or some saint.
- The hereditary feudal ruler (seigneur) of Sark, when the title is held by a woman in her own right.
- (chess, slang) A queen.
Synonyms
- See Thesaurus:woman
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
See also
Verb
dame (third-person singular simple present dames, present participle daming, simple past and past participle damed)
- To make a dame.
- 1805, Richard Twiss, “On Draughts”, in Miscellanies, volume II, London: […], page 162:
- The French call simply Pawn, “la Dame qui n’est point Damée, et l’on n’appelle Dame proprement dite, que le Pion qui est Damé, et couvert d’un autre Pion,” which means “the Draught or Pawn which is not damed, and which is only termed Dame or Queen, when the Pawn which is damed, is covered with another Pawn.”
- 1995, H. Paul Jeffers, A Grand Night For Murder:
- Jonathan’s first edition of Calais was signed by Dame Agatha [Christie]. Not as Dame Agatha, just plain Agatha. She got Damed later.
- 1995, Mediaweek, page C-8:
- […] Joanna Lumley, both pros in their respective fields, and both Brits in their respective hearts, are now both newly knighted (damed, in Lumley’s case) by England’s Queen Lizzy.
- 2004, John Lahr, “Barry Humphries: Playing possum”, in Matthew Ricketson, editor, The Best Australian Profiles, Black Inc., →ISBN, page 215:
- Edna [Everage] was damed spontaneously, on camera, by the Socialist Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam.
- 2006, Andrew Hosken, Nothing Like a Dame: The Scandals of Shirley Porter, London: Granta Books, →ISBN, page 289:
- Peter Bradley, deputy leader of the Labour group, scoffed that she [Shirley Porter] had been ‘Damed with faint praise’ and further observed that every pantomime needs a Dame.
- 2013, Tracy Farr, Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, Fremantle Press:
- And then, of course, there was the dame-ing. It didn’t take much to be made a dame in the ’70s.
References
- ^ “dāme, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 16 February 2018.
Further reading
dame (title) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
dame (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
Afrikaans
Etymology
From Dutch dame, from Middle Dutch dame, from Middle French dame, from Old French dame, from Latin domina.
Noun
dame (plural dames, diminutive dametjie)
Derived terms
- damesagtig
- damesbaadjie
- damesbroekie
- damesdrag
- damesdubbelspel
- damesenkelspel
- damesfiets
- damesgambiet
- damesgek
- damesgeruit
- dameshand
- dameshangkas
- dameshoedemaker
- dameskamer
- dameskapmantel
- dameskleremaker
- dameskoepee
- dameskoor
- dameskostuum
- dameskroeg
- damesmantel
- damesparty
- damesperd
- damespiesang
- damespoeiersakkie
- damesruiter
- damesrykleed
- damesryperd
- damestassie
- damesvertrek
- damesvriend
- dameswerksakkie
See also
Chess pieces in Afrikaans · skaakstukke (skaak + stukke) (layout · text) | |||||
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koning | dame | toring | loper | ruiter | pion |
Danish
Etymology
Borrowed from French dame (“lady”).
Pronunciation
Noun
dame c (singular definite damen, plural indefinite damer)
- (polite) lady, woman (adult female)
- lady (adult female with a cultivated appearance)
- (informal) girlfriend
- (card games) queen
Declension
Derived terms
- damet (“ladyish, ladylike”)
See also
Playing cards in Danish · kort, spillekort (layout · text) | ||||||
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es | toer | treer | firer | femmer | sekser | syver |
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otter | nier | tier | knægt, bonde | dame, dronning | konge | joker |
dame on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia da
Dame (kort) on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia da
Dutch
Etymology
From Middle Dutch dame, from Middle French dame, from Old French dame, from Latin domina.
Pronunciation
Noun
dame f (plural dames, diminutive dametje n)
- lady
- noblewoman
- Polite term or title of address for any (adult or adolescent) woman.
- Synonym: madam
- (chess, card games) queen
- Synonym: koningin
Usage notes
- The nonstandard plural damesch is occasionally encountered in archaising contexts, particularly in sororities. This spelling, however, is an unetymological faux-archaism, as the plural marker -s was historically never spelled -sch.
Derived terms
Descendants
- Afrikaans: dame
See also
Chess pieces in Dutch · schaakstukken (schaak + stukken) (layout · text) | |||||
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koning | koningin, dame | toren | loper, bisschop, raadsheer | paard | pion |
Anagrams
French
Etymology
Inherited from Old French dame, from Late Latin domna, shortened variant of Latin domina.
Pronunciation
Noun
dame f (plural dames)
Usage notes
Occasionally, in very formal or official registers, dame can be used as a title with a woman's name, for example dame Jeanne Dupont. Normal usage would be Madame Jeanne Dupont.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
- → Catalan: dama
- → Friulian: dame
- → Galician: dama
- → German: Dame
- → Italian: dama
- → Polish: dama
- → Portuguese: dama
- → Romanian: damă
- → Spanish: dama
Interjection
dame
See also
Chess pieces in French · pièces d’échecs (layout · text) | |||||
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roi | dame | tour | fou | cavalier | pion |
Playing cards in French · cartes à jouer (layout · text) | ||||||
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as | deux | trois | quatre | cinq | six | sept |
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huit | neuf | dix | valet | dame | roi | joker |
Further reading
- “dame”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian
Noun
dame f
Anagrams
Japanese
Romanization
dame
Middle English
Etymology 1
From Old French dame, from Latin domina.
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Noun
dame (plural dames)
- lady (high-ranking or noble woman):
- A housewife (mistress of a family)
- A mother (of humans, animals, or plants)
- A term of address for a noble lady.
- A respectful term of address for any woman (sometimes sarcastic).
Related terms
Descendants
References
- “dāme, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 2
Noun
dame
- Alternative form of dam (“dam”)
Etymology 3
Noun
dame
- Alternative form of damey
Etymology 4
Noun
dame
- (when preceding labials) Alternative form of dan
Etymology 5
Verb
dame
- Alternative form of dampnen
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology
From Latin domina, via Old French dame and late Old Norse damma.
Noun
dame f or m (definite singular dama or damen, indefinite plural damer, definite plural damene)
- a lady, woman
- (romantic relationship) a girlfriend
- (card games) a queen
Derived terms
References
- “dame” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
From Latin domina, via Old French dame and late Old Norse damma.
Noun
dame f (definite singular dama, indefinite plural damer, definite plural damene)
- a lady, woman
- (romantic relationship) a girlfriend
- (card games) a queen
Derived terms
References
- “dame” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Old French
Etymology
From Late Latin domna, shortened variant of Latin domina.
Pronunciation
Noun
dame oblique singular, f (oblique plural dames, nominative singular dame, nominative plural dames)
Usage notes
- Dame was the usual term referring to women of high social status, while fame was used of such women chiefly in the sense of “wife”.
Descendants
- Bourguignon: daime
- Franc-Comtois: daime
- → Italian: dama
- Lorrain: daime
- → Middle English: dame, damme, dam
- Middle French: dame
- Norman: dame
- → Norwegian Bokmål: dame
- → Norwegian Nynorsk: dame
- Picard: danme
Romanian
Pronunciation
Noun
dame f
- inflection of damă:
Spanish
Pronunciation
Verb
dame
- inflection of dar:
- second-person singular imperative combined with me
- second-person singular voseo imperative combined with me
- English terms derived from Proto-Italic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/eɪm
- Rhymes:English/eɪm/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- British English
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- en:Theater
- American English
- English dated terms
- English informal terms
- English derogatory terms
- English terms with archaic senses
- en:Chess
- English slang
- English verbs
- en:Female
- en:Female people
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Dutch
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Middle Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Middle Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Middle French
- Afrikaans terms derived from Old French
- Afrikaans terms derived from Latin
- Afrikaans lemmas
- Afrikaans nouns
- af:Chess
- Danish terms borrowed from French
- Danish terms derived from French
- Danish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
- Danish common-gender nouns
- Danish polite terms
- Danish informal terms
- da:Card games
- Dutch terms inherited from Middle Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Middle Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Middle French
- Dutch terms derived from Old French
- Dutch terms derived from Latin
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio links
- Rhymes:Dutch/aːmə
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -s
- Dutch feminine nouns
- nl:Chess
- nl:Card games
- French terms inherited from Old French
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms inherited from Late Latin
- French terms derived from Late Latin
- French terms inherited from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- Rhymes:French/am
- Rhymes:French/am/1 syllable
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French feminine nouns
- fr:Chess
- fr:Card games
- French interjections
- French dated terms
- fr:Poker
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian noun forms
- Japanese non-lemma forms
- Japanese romanizations
- Middle English terms borrowed from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Latin
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English terms with rare senses
- Middle English verbs
- Middle English terms of address
- enm:Female animals
- enm:Female family members
- enm:Nobility
- enm:Female people
- Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Latin
- Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Old French
- Norwegian Bokmål terms inherited from Old Norse
- Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Old Norse
- Norwegian Bokmål lemmas
- Norwegian Bokmål nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål feminine nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål masculine nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål nouns with multiple genders
- Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from Latin
- Norwegian Nynorsk terms borrowed from Old French
- Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from Old French
- Norwegian Nynorsk terms inherited from Old Norse
- Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from Old Norse
- Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas
- Norwegian Nynorsk nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk feminine nouns
- Old French terms inherited from Late Latin
- Old French terms derived from Late Latin
- Old French terms inherited from Latin
- Old French terms derived from Latin
- Old French terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Old French/amə
- Old French lemmas
- Old French nouns
- Old French feminine nouns
- fro:People
- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Romanian non-lemma forms
- Romanian noun forms
- Spanish 2-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/ame
- Rhymes:Spanish/ame/2 syllables
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms