grande dame
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Attested 1735–45.[1] Borrowed from French grande dame, from grande (the feminine form of grand (“great, grand”)) + dame (“lady”).[1][2] Doublet of grandam.
The plural form grandes dames is borrowed from French grandes dames.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): (both singular and plural) /ˌɡɹɒ̃ ˈdɑːm/, /ɡɹɒn(d)-/
- (General American) IPA(key): (both singular and plural) /ˌɡɹɑnd ˈdɑm/, /ˌɡɹænd-/
- Rhymes: -ɑːm, -ɑm
Noun
[edit]grande dame (plural grandes dames) (also attributive)
- A woman who is high-ranking, socially prominent, or has a dignified character, especially one who is advanced in age and haughty.
- Synonyms: dowager, (socially prominent woman) doyenne, grande madame
- a. 1856 (date written), Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VIII, in A[rthur] B[ell] Nicholls, editor, The Professor, a Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 140:
- In general the Continental, or at least the Belgian old women permit themselves a license of manners, speech, and aspect, such as our venerable grand-dames would recoil from as absolutely disreputable, […]
- 1865, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], “Feathery Seeds that were Freighted with Fruit of the Future”, in Strathmore: A Romance […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 219:
- You only 'make love' languidly to some grande dame, who blinds him with sandal-wood and stifles him in lace; […]
- 1883, Charlotte M[ary] Yonge, “A Patient Grisel”, in Stray Pearls: Memoirs of Margaret de Ribaumont, Viscountess of Bellaise, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 232–233:
- Now the Baronne de Ribaumont Walwyn was a veritable grande dame, and Madame Croquelebois, in spite of her sharp nose, and sharper tongue, was quite cowed by her, and absolutely driven to confess that she had not heard a word against Madame la Contesse.
- 1902 March, Gertrude Franklin Atherton, chapter III, in The Conqueror: Being the True and Romantic Story of Alexander Hamilton, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, book I (Rachel Levine), page 15:
- Do you no longer want to go to Europe? to court? to be grande dame and converse with princes?
- 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 141:
- She has been buying (under my guidance) new clothes and she looks quite the grande dame.
- A woman who is accomplished and influential, and is a respected senior figure in a particular field; a doyenne.
- 1965 August 2, “Milestones”, in Time[2], New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2010-10-29:
- Died. Ruth St. Denis, 90, grande dame of modern dance, whose foresight and inspiration helped change the U.S. from a choreographic wasteland to what is today one of the world's foremost centers of dance; […]
- 2007 July 15, Larry Rohter, “Movies: A part made for her”, in The New York Times[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-26:
- As the grande dame of Latin American actresses, Norma Aleandro is accustomed to having choice roles gravitate in her direction.
- (figurative) A very highly regarded and well-known institution or structure, or large conveyance such as a ship.
- 2006, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, “The Basque Country”, in Alexia Meyers Travaglini, editor, Spain 2007 (Frommer’s), Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, page 534:
- Carlton […] Returned to its former glory, this is the grande dame of all Bilbao hotels.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]woman who is high-ranking, socially prominent, or has a dignified character
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woman who is accomplished and influential, and is a respected senior figure in a particular field — see doyenne
very highly regarded and well-known institution or structure, or large conveyance
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References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “grande dame, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.
- ^ “grande dame, n. and adj.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2023.
Further reading
[edit]- “grande dame”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
French
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]grande dame f (plural grandes dames)
- great lady, grande dame
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʰer-
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *demh₂-
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English doublets
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɑːm
- Rhymes:English/ɑːm/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ɑm
- Rhymes:English/ɑm/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English multiword terms
- English terms with quotations
- en:Female people
- en:Stock characters
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French multiword terms
- French feminine nouns
- French compound nouns