dame

See also: Dame, damé, dáme, and Damɛ

English

Etymology

From Middle English dame, dam, from Old French dame, from Latin domina.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /deɪm/
• Rhymes: -eɪm

Noun

dame (plural dames)

1. (Britain) The equivalent title to Sir for a female knight.

   Dame Edith Sitwell

2. (dated, informal, slightly derogatory, US) A woman.
   • 1903, Guy Wetmore Carryl, The Lieutenant-Governor, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, page 37:

     "I can see that would be the kind of a chap that the dames would stand for everlastingly."

   • 1949, Oscar Hammerstein II, "There is Nothing Like a Dame", South Pacific

     There ain't nothin' like a dame! / Nothin' in the world! / There is nothin' you can name / That is anythin' like a dame!

3. A traditional character in British pantomime, a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag.
4. (archaic) Lady, woman.
5. (Britain) A matron at Eton College.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:woman

Related terms

• grande dame

Translations

archaic: lady, woman

• Portuguese: dama (pt) f
• Russian: да́ма (ru) f (dáma), госпожа́ (ru) f (gospožá), суда́рыня (ru) f (sudárynja)

• Scottish Gaelic: baintighearna (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian: dama (sh) f, gospa (sh)

equivalent title to Sir for a female knight

• Maori: kahurangi
• Portuguese: dama (pt) f
• Romanian: doamnă (ro) f

• Russian: ле́ди (ru) f (lédi), дейм f (dɛjm), да́ма (ru) f (dáma)
• Serbo-Croatian: dama (sh)

slightly derogatory way of referring to a woman

• Finnish: daami (fi)

• Russian: да́мочка (ru) f (dámočka), бабёнка (ru) f (babjónka) (derogatory), ба́ба (ru) f (bába) (derogatory), тётка (ru) f (tjótka)

See also

• knight
• madam
• madame
• sir

Anagrams

• ADME
• Edam
• made
• mead

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Danish

Etymology

Borrowing from French dame (“lady”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /daːmə/, [ˈd̥æːmə], [ˈd̥æːm̩]

Noun

dame c (singular definite damen, plural indefinite damer)

1. lady
2. woman
3. (card games) queen

Inflection

Declension of dame

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	dame	damen	damer	damerne
genitive	dames	damens	damers	damernes

Derived terms

• damet ("ladyish", "ladylike")

See also

Playing cards in Danish · kort, spillekort (layout · text)
es	toer	treer	firer	femmer	sekser	syver
otter	nier	tier	knægt, bonde	dame, dronning	konge	joker

• dame on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da
• Dame (kort) on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: da‧me

Etymology

Borrowing from Old French dame, from Latin domina.

Noun

dame f (plural dames, diminutive dametje n)

1. lady
2. (chess) queen

Anagrams

• adem, made

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French

Etymology

From Old French dame, from Late Latin domna, shortened variant of Latin domina.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): [daːm]

Noun

dame f (plural dames)

1. A lady
2. A polite form of address for a woman.
3. (chess) queen
4. (card games) queen

Derived terms

• dame d'attendre
• dame d'honneur
• grande dame
• jeu de dames

Further reading

• “dame” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Italian

Noun

dame f

1. plural of dama

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Japanese

Romanization

dame

1. Rōmaji transcription of だめ

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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin domina, via Old French dame and late Old Norse damma.

Noun

dame f, m (definite singular dama or damen, indefinite plural damer, definite plural damene)

1. a lady, woman
2. (card games) a queen

Derived terms

• dametoalett
• dameundertøy

References

• “dame” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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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)

1. a lady, woman
2. (card games) a queen

Derived terms

• dametoalett
• dameundertøy

References

• “dame” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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Old French

Etymology

From Late Latin domna, shortened variant of Latin domina.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdã.mə/
• Rhymes: -amə

Noun

dame f (oblique plural dames, nominative singular dame, nominative plural dames)

1. lady; woman

Usage notes

• Unlike in modern French, fame usually refers to a wife, while dame refers to a woman.

Descendants

• English: dame
• French: dame

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Spanish

Verb

dame

1. Compound of the informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of dar, da and the pronoun me: give me!