different between madam vs maim

English

Alternative forms

• madame

Etymology

From Middle English madame, from Old French madame, from ma (“my”) + dame (“lady”), from post-classical Latin mea domina.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mæd.?m/

Noun

madam (plural madams)

1. (dated in the UK) A polite form of address for a woman or lady.

   Mrs Grey wondered if the outfit she was trying on made her look fat. The sales assistant just said, “It suits you, madam”.

   Later, Mrs Grey was sitting in her favourite tea shop. “Would madam like the usual cream cakes and patisserie with her tea?” the waitress asked.

2. The mistress of a household.
3. (colloquial) A conceited or quarrelsome girl.

   Selina kept pushing and shoving during musical chairs. The nursery school teacher said she was a bad-tempered little madam.

4. (slang) A woman who runs a brothel, particularly one that specializes in finding prostitutes for rich and important clients.

   After she grew too old to work as a prostitute, she became a madam.

Synonyms

• (polite form of address): dame, woman, lady, matron, mistress
• (woman who runs a brothel): abbess (archaic), bawd, lady abbess, nookie-bookie, whoremistress, (female) brothel-keeper

Coordinate terms

• (polite form of address): sir, gentleman
• (woman who runs a brothel): pimp (mostly for males), brothel-keeper

Related terms

• madame
• ma'am

Translations

Verb

madam (third-person singular simple present madams, present participle madaming, simple past and past participle madamed)

1. (transitive) To address as "madam".
   • 1905, William Clark Russell, The Yarn of Old Harbour Town (page 208)

     He bowed to me, he madamed me, he was throughout as gentlemanlike and respectful as I had ever found him when we met at Old Harbour House or in Old Harbour Town.

   • 1988, Gahan Wilson, Eddy Deco's Last Caper (page 123)

     "I don't care," she said. "They'll be dead in a few minutes if you'll just do your job. Stop madaming me and get to work."

See also

• pimp
• pimping

Anagrams

• Damma, damma, ?amma

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French madame.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma??d?m/
• Hyphenation: ma?dam
• Rhymes: -?m

Noun

madam f (plural madammen or madams, diminutive madammeke n or madammeken n or madammetje n)

1. madam, lady
2. madam, female counterpart of a pimp

Derived terms

• kakmadam

Descendants

• Afrikaans: madam

Middle English

Noun

madam

1. Alternative form of madame

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From French madame.

Noun

madam m (definite singular madammen, indefinite plural madammer, definite plural madammene)

1. madam

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From French madame.

Noun

madam f (definite singular madamma, indefinite plural madammer, definite plural madammene)

1. madam

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from French madame.

Noun

madam (definite accusative madam?, plural madamlar)

1. madam

Declension

English

Etymology

From Middle English maymen, mahaymen, from Anglo-Norman maheimer, mahaigner, of Germanic origin; see mayhem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me?m/
• Rhymes: -e?m

Verb

maim (third-person singular simple present maims, present participle maiming, simple past and past participle maimed)

1. To wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body.

   • Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local colour) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.

Synonyms

• mutilate

Derived terms

• maimer

Translations

Noun

maim (plural maims)

1. (obsolete) A serious wound

Anagrams

• I'mma, Imma, Mami, imam, imma, mami

Tocharian B

Etymology

From Proto-Tocharian *meim, a nominal derivative of *mei- (“to measure”). Possibly linked to Proto-Indo-European *mod-ye/o- or *m?dye/o-, derivatives of *med- (“to measure, give advice, heal”) (whence Latin meditor and Old Irish midithir), or alternatively to *meh?-ye/o- from *meh?- (“to measure”) (whence Latin m?tior). Compare Tocharian A mem.

Noun

maim ?

1. thought, thinking