different between madam vs wife

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 wif, wiif, wyf, from Old English w?f (“woman, female, lady, wife”), from Proto-Germanic *w?b? (“woman, wife”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *g?wíb?- (“shame, pudenda”) (compare Tocharian A/B kip/kw?pe (“shame, genitals, female pudenda”)). Cognate with Scots wife (“wife”), West Frisian wiif (“wife, woman”), Saterland Frisian Wieuw (“woman, lady, female”), North Frisian wüf (“wife, woman”), Dutch wijf (“woman, female”), Low German Wief (“woman, female”), German Weib (“woman, wife, female”), Danish viv (“woman”), Norwegian viv (“wife, woman, girl”), Swedish viv (“woman”), Faroese vív (“wife, woman”), Icelandic víf (“woman”).

See also woman.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wa?f/
• Rhymes: -a?f

Noun

wife (plural wives)

1. A married woman, especially in relation to her spouse.
   • 1952, P. G. Wodehouse, Big Business, in 'A Few Quick Ones', Everyman, London: 2009, p 127-8.

     All through Reginald's deeply moving performance she had sat breathless, her mind in a whirl and her soul stirred to her very depths. With each low note that he pulled up from the soles of his shoes she could feel the old affection and esteem surging back into her with a whoosh, and long before he had taken his sixth bow she knew ... that it would be madness to try to seek happiness elsewhere, particularly as the wife of a man with large ears and no chin, who looked as if he were about to start in the two-thirty race at Kempton Park.
2. The female of a pair of mated animals.

3. (Scotland) Synonym of woman.

Usage notes

Although mostly used only humorously, wife can be used with the to indicate one's own wife, as in "I'd like to go, but the wife wants me home".

Synonyms

• (married woman): little woman (slang)
• See also Thesaurus:wife

Antonyms

• (married woman): husband, were (noun) (obsolete)

Hypernyms

• better half, life partner, partner, significant other, spouse, wedder

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (waifu)
  • ? English: waifu
• ? Korean: ??? (waipeu)

Translations

See also

• uxorial

Verb

wife

1. (slang, African-American Vernacular, said of men) to marry

Synonyms

• wive

See also

• wife on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Pages starting with “wife”.

References

• Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, ?ISBN

Anagrams

• fiew

Middle English

Noun

wife

1. Alternative form of wif

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English wif (“woman, wife”), from Old English w?f (“woman”).

Noun

wife (plural wifes)

1. woman
2. wife

Derived terms