dame

Meanings

Noun

• Usually capitalized as Dame: a title equivalent to Sir for a female knight.
• A matron at a school, especially Eton College.
• In traditional pantomime: a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag.
• A woman.
• A lady, a woman.

Verb

• To make a dame.

Origin

• From Middle English dame, dam, 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, ultimately either from Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- ("to domesticate, tame") or from Latin domus ("home, house") (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dem- ("to build (up)")). domina, and donna.