different between frau vs dame

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Frau. Doublet of frow and vrouw.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?a?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Noun

frau (plural fraus)

1. A woman, especially a German woman.

Anagrams

• Rauf, Urfa, fuar

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin fraus.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?f?aw/
• Rhymes: -aw

Noun

frau m (plural fraus)

1. fraud

Further reading

• “frau” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “frau” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “frau” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “frau” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

German

Etymology

From Frau by making the first letter lower-case. Coined as an alternative to the male-sounding word man (“one”), which is cognate and homophonous with Mann (“adult male”). First used by feminists when writing about women, then occasionally used in general contexts. Compare the pronoun mensch. Compare also the use of she vs he in English to refer to someone whose gender is unknown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fra??/
• Homophone: Frau
• Rhymes: -a??

Pronoun

frau

1. (indefinite, informal, slang, rare) one, they (indefinite third-person singular pronoun)
   • 1998, Matthias Matussek, Die vaterlose Gesellschaft: überfällige Anmerkungen zum Geschlechterkampf, page 47:

     Sie ist selbst dann noch beschissen, wenn frau sie beendet hat.

   • 2003, Ulrike Schlicht, Selbsterweiterungsprozesse alleinlebender Frauen, ?ISBN, page 218:

     Wenn frau sich kennt, braucht sie nicht vor sich wegzulaufen.

   • 2008, Gaye Suse Kromer, Obszöne Lust oder etablierte Unterhaltung?, page 163:

     Erst mal sechs Jahre alleine und frau muss auch zusehen, dass sie sich gerne hat. Das liebe ich, mit mir selbst zu sein und mich zu mögen und mich zu streicheln.

Usage notes

• The word is more frequently used by left-wing and/or feminist writers and speakers, which may use this word in a serious formal context, where this word is not usually acceptable, in order to express their political views. In informal context, such as magazine articles, frau is usually used just once in a text as a stylistic flourish to underline that a women-specific topic is discussed.

References

Further reading

• “frau” in Duden online

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• fraud

Etymology

From Old Norse frauð.

Noun

frau f or m (definite singular frauen or fraua, indefinite plural frauer or frauar, definite plural frauene or frauane)

1. (chiefly uncountable) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Inflection

Related terms

• frode

References

• “frau” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Anagrams

• frua, fura

English

Etymology

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”), feminine form of dominus (“lord, master, ruler; owner of a residence”), ultimately either from Proto-Indo-European *demh?- (“to domesticate, tame”) or from Latin domus (“home, house”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“to build (up)”)). Doublet of domina and donna.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /de?m/
• Rhymes: -e?m

Noun

dame (plural dames)

1. (Britain) Usually capitalized as Dame: a title equivalent to Sir for a female knight.
2. (Britain) A matron at a school, especially Eton College.
3. (Britain, theater) In traditional pantomime: a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag.
4. (US, dated, informal, slightly derogatory) A woman.
5. (archaic) A lady, a woman.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:woman

Derived terms

• beldame
• dame school
• damehood
• damely

Related terms

Translations

See also

• knight
• madam
• madame
• sir

References

Further reading

• dame (title) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dame (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• ADEM, ADME, Adem, Edam, MEDA, Mead, made, mead

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)

1. lady
2. (chess) queen

Derived terms

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from French dame (“lady”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /da?m?/, [?d?æ?m?]

Noun

dame c (singular definite damen, plural indefinite damer)

1. (polite) lady, woman (adult female)
2. lady (adult female with a cultivated appearance)
3. (informal) girlfriend
4. (card games) queen

Inflection

Derived terms

• damet (“ladyish, ladylike”)

See also

• 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

• IPA^(key): /?da?.m?/
• Hyphenation: da?me
• Rhymes: -a?m?

Noun

dame f (plural dames, diminutive dametje n)

1. lady
   1. noblewoman
   2. Polite term or title of address for any (adult or adolescent) woman.
2. (chess, card games) queen

   Synonym: koningin

Derived terms

• damesblad
• damesfiets
• dameskapper
• dameskleding
• damestoilet
• dameszadel
• eredame
• hofdame

Related terms

• madam

Descendants

• Afrikaans: dame

See also

Anagrams

• adem, made

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dam/
• Rhymes: -am

Noun

dame f (plural dames)

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

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

• d^e, lady, madame

Derived terms

• dame blanche
• dame d'attendre
• dame d'honneur
• Dame Nature
• grande dame
• jeu de dames
• madame

Descendants

• ? Catalan: dama
• ? Friulian: dame
• ? Galician: dama
• ? German: Dame
• ? Polish: dama
• ? Portuguese: dama
• ? Romanian: dam?
• ? Spanish: dama

See also

Further reading

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

Italian

Noun

dame f

1. plural of dama

Japanese

Romanization

dame

1. R?maji transcription of ??

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French dame, from Latin domina.

Alternative forms

• damme, dam

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?da?m(?)/, /?dam(?)/

Noun

dame (plural dames)

1. lady (high-ranking or noble woman):
   1. abbess (governor of a nunnery)
   2. (rare) A female anchorite (with servants)
2. A housewife (mistress of a family)
3. A mother (of humans, animals, or plants)
4. A term of address for a noble lady.
5. A respectful term of address for any woman (sometimes sarcastic).

Related terms

• madame
• stepdame

Descendants

• English: dame; dam
• Scots: dame, deem; dam

References

• “d?me, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Noun

dame

1. Alternative form of dam (“dam”)

Etymology 3

Verb

dame

1. 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)

1. a lady, woman
2. (romantic relationship) a girlfriend
3. (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)

1. a lady, woman
2. (romantic relationship) a girlfriend
3. (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

• IPA^(key): [?dãm?]
• Rhymes: -am?

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

• Bourguignon: daime
• Franc-Comtois: daime
• ? Italian: dama
• Lorrain: daime
• ? Middle English: dame, damme, dam
  • English: dame; dam
  • Scots: dame, deem; dam
• Middle French: dame
  • French: dame
    • ? Catalan: dama
    • ? Friulian: dame
    • ? Galician: dama
    • ? German: Dame
    • ? Polish: dama
    • ? Portuguese: dama
    • ? Romanian: dam?
    • ? Spanish: dama
  • ? Middle Dutch: dame
    • Dutch: dame
• Norman: dame
• ? Norwegian Bokmål: dame
• ? Norwegian Nynorsk: dame
• Picard: danme

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?dame]

Noun

dame f

1. indefinite plural of dam?
2. indefinite genitive/dative singular of dam?

Spanish

Verb

dame

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