| 释义 |
grandam, grandame arch.|ˈgrændəm, -deɪm|
Forms: 4–5 graun-, grawndam, 5–6 grauntdam(e, 6 graundame, grandhame, grandamme, 6–9 grand-dame, 3, 6– grandame, 6– grandam. See also grannam.
[a. AF. graund dame: see grand a. 12 b and dame, dam2; the use of dame, ‘lady’ in the sense of ‘mother’ seems to be AF. only. This word is in Eng. the oldest of the terms of relationship formed with grand.]
1. = grandmother n. 1.
a1225St. Marher. 22 In hire grandame hus þat wes icleopet Clete. 1390Gower Conf. I. 90 A lady..So olde she might unnethes go, And was grauntdame to the dede. c1400Destr. Troy 13593 His graundam full graidly grippit hym onone. 1509Fisher Funeral Serm. Hen. VII (Colophon), My lady ye Kynges graundame. 1556Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 96 The xxvij. of June [1555] was kept the obijt of the kynges grandhame. 1595Shakes. John i. i. 168, I am thy grandame Richard. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. ix, These blunders occasioned grief to his grand-dame. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Self-Reliance Wks. (Bohn) I. 28 We are like children who repeat by rote the sentences of grandames and tutors. 1871R. Ellis tr. Catullus lxxxiv. 6 So grandsire, grandam alike did agree.
Proverb.1611Cotgr. s.v. Apprendre, (An idle, vaine, or needlesse labour) we say, to teach his grandame to grope ducks.
b. (In form grandam only.) Of animals: The dam's dam. (See dam n.2)
1839Ure Dict. Arts 1308 By coupling the female [ewe] thus generated, with such a male..another improvement of one-half will be obtained, affording a staple three-fourths finer than that of the grandam.
2. An ancestress (said of Eve); = grandmother n. 2.
1620T. Peyton Glasse of Time i. 30 Our grandame Eue. 1628Gaule Pract. Theories (1629) 9 One should ryse from her Loynes, to recouer his Grand-dames fall; and pash that wily Serpents head. 1724Weekly Jrnl. 25 Jan. 2769/1 When Grandame Eve first invented the Needle to sew Fig Leaves together. 1820Scott Abbot iv, Who, wise and good as she was, was yet a daughter of grandame Eve.
3. An old woman; a ‘gossip’.
c1550Bale Apol. 54 Some superstycyouse grandame, or some olde dottynge Sir Dauy. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. 77 b, This olde grandamme was devoutelye kneling upon her knees. 1837Hawthorne Twice-Told T. (1851) I. xix. 285 The skinny ugliness of a shrivelled grandam.
4. fig. (Chiefly appositive.)
1602Narcissus (1893) 734 And so I died and sunke into my grandam..earth. 1606Dekker Sev. Sinnes vii. (Arb.) 43 This ancient and reuerend Grandam of Citties. 1630J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. i. 98 That Ale is Grandam Natures brewing. a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 34 From out their grand-dame earth they fain would fly. 1812Combe Picturesque xix. (Chandos) 72 In Grandame Nature's vast collection.
5. attrib. (quasi-adj.) as in † grandam gold, hoarded wealth; † grandame words, old or obsolete words.
1598E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 63 Some blame deep Spencer for his grandam words. 1663Dryden Wild Gallant iv. i, Frances has one hundred and twenty pieces of old grandam-and-aunt gold left her. 1700― Fables Pref. (Globe) 504 They..would..hoard him up, as misers do their grandam gold, only to look on it themselves.
Hence † ˈgrandameship humorous.
1649Davenant Love & Honour ii. 8 Ile teach Her Grandameship to mump, and marry too. |