dame

dame, properly a name of respect or a title equivalent to lady, surviving in English as the legal designation for the wife or widow of a baronet or knight or for a dame of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire; it is prefixed to the given name and surname.

Dame has also been used by societies or orders (e.g., the Primrose League) to denote female members holding a rank equivalent to the male rank of knight. The ordinary use of the word by itself is for an older woman. Dame was used to describe female keepers of schools for young children, although the term became obsolete after the advance of public elementary education. At Eton College, boardinghouses kept by persons other than members of the teaching staff were known as dames’ouses, though the head might not necessarily be a woman. As a term of address to ladies of all ranks, from the sovereign down, madam, shortened to ma’m, represents the French madame, "my lady."

The term damsel for a young girl or maiden is now used only as a literary word. It is taken from the Old French dameisele, formed from dame, and parallel with dansele or doncele from the Middle Latin domicella or dominicella, diminutive of domina. The French damoiselle and demoiselle are later formations which developed to the title of a young unmarried woman, the mademoiselle or the English miss of modern usage. At the court of France, after the 17th century, mademoiselle, without the name of the lady, was a courtesy title given to the eldest daughter of the eldest brother of the king, known as monsieur. Anne Marie Louise is known to history as La Grande Mademoiselle. The English literary form damosel was another importation from France in the 15th century. In the early Middle Ages damoiseau, domicellus, dameicele, damoiselle, and domicella were used as titles of honour for the unmarried sons and daughters of royal persons and lords (seigneurs). Later the damoiseau (in the south donzel, in Béarn domengar) was specifically a young man of gentle birth who aspired to knighthood, equivalent to écuyer, "esquire," or valet.