the.com/madam
A polite form of address for a woman, though one specialized sense refers to a brothel's manager.
means A polite form of address for a woman — though in one specialized sense it also means the woman who runs a brothel.
from From French 'madame,' literally 'my lady' (ma + dame), from Latin 'mea domina.' It entered English as a straightforward courtesy title for a woman of rank. The brothel-keeper sense grew later, simply by narrowing: the woman in charge of the house — any house — got called by the title for the lady of the house, and in that particular kind of house, the meaning stuck.
- palindrome
- Reads the same backward, like its own comeback
- etymology
- From French ma dame, meaning my lady
- dual meaning
- Polite address or brothel manager, context does heavy lifting