| 释义 |
damsel, damosel|ˈdæmzəl, ˈdæmɒzɛl|
Forms: α. 3 dameisele, 3–4 damaisele, 4 dammaisele, 3–5 damaysele, 5 -elle; β. 4–6 damesel, -ele, -elle, damysel, -ele, -elle, damisel, -elle, 5 dammisel, Sc. damyseill, 6 Sc. damicel, -ell; γ. 5–7 damsell, 6– damsel; δ. 4–6 damoysele, -el, damoisele, -el, (9 damoiselle); ε. 6–7 (9) damosel, -elle, damozel(l, -elle, (6 damusel); ζ. 7 dam'zell, 7–8 dam'sel.
[Early ME. dameisele, damaisele, a. OF. dameisele (damisele) (12th c.), later damoisele, -elle (the only form in Cotgrave), demoiselle (14th c.). The OF. dameisele was a new formation from dame, instead of the popular danzele, dansele, doncele = Pr. and It. donzella, Sp. doncella:—late L. *dominicella, med.L. domnicella, domicella, dim. of domina mistress, lady, fem. of dominus lord. (There is a 10th c. F. instance of the learned form domnizelle.) In Eng. the middle syllable was reduced from ei (ai), to i, ĕ, and finally disappeared. The variant damoiselle was introduced in 15th c. from Parisian F. (by Lydgate, Caxton, etc.), and gave rise here to damosel, damozel, so frequent in 16–17th c., and affected in 19th c. in sense 1. See also donzel.]
I.
1. A young unmarried lady; originally one of noble or gentle birth, but gradually extended as a respectful appellation to those of lower rank. Now merged in sense 2; but modern poets and romantic writers (led by Sir W. Scott) have recalled the 16–17th c. damosel, damozel, to express a more stately notion than is now conveyed by damsel.
α [1292Britton i. xix. §5 Des enfauntz madles, damaysels et vedues.] c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 84/37 Þe Iustise bi-heold þat maide..‘Dameisele,’ he seide, ‘ȝwat art þou?’ 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 1492 Þe nobloste damaisele þat was in eni londe. a1450Knt. de la Tour cxx. 166 The yonge damayselle, the whiche the knight hadde refused.
β1300–40Cursor M. 3837 (Cott.) Iacob lifted vp þe sten, And spak þan wit þe damisel. c1380Sir Ferumb. 2103 Þan hym spak duk Roland..Tak thys damesele by þe hand as þow louest me. c1386Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 50 The fairest hiewed..Was cleped fayre damysel Pertilote. a1440Sir Degrev. 623 To chyrche the gay dammisel Buskede hyr ȝare. c1500Lancelot 2351 Sche had no knycht, sche had no damyseill.
γc1400Destr. Troy 7887 A damsell faire, Þat bright was of ble, and Breisaid she hight. 1649Milton Eikon. xxi, The Damsell of Burgundie [the Duchess]. 1711‘J. Distaff’ Char. Don Sacheverellio 9 [He] took..the very Scrubs of both Sexes for Knights and Damsels. 1848Macaulay Hist. Engl. I. 586 Damsels of the best families in the town wove colours for the insurgents.
δc1400Rom. Rose 1622 These damoysels & bachelers. c1477Caxton Jason 6 Barounes and knightes, ladies and damoiselles, ete in the halle. 1549Chaloner Erasmus on Folly O iij b, Amonges the damoysels and Madames of the court. 1557K. Arthur (Copland) i. xvii, There came a damoysell..a passyng fayre damisel. [1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 223 Those romances of chivalry..long formed the favourite reading of the noble, the dame and the damoiselle.]
εc1300K. Alis. 171 Ladies and damoselis Maken heom redy. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ix. 9 All knyghtes ought to ayd to theyr powers all ladyes and damozels. Ibid. ccxiii. 264 They rode about the countrey, and vysited the ladies nad dumasels [elsewhere damozelles, dammuselles]. 1548Hall Chron. 240 The yonge Princes and Damosell of Burgoyne. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. i. 19 Th' adventure of the errant damozell. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 215 Hercules..walking along the shore with a Damosel, whom he loued. 1813Scott Trierm. Introd. viii, Of errant knight and damozelle. 1871Rossetti Blessed Damozel i, The blessed damozel leaned out From the gold bar of Heaven. 1884F. M. Crawford Rom. Singer I. 256 Your boy wants to marry a noble damosel.
2. A young unmarried woman (without any connotation of rank or respect—sometimes even slightingly); a maid, maiden, girl, country lass.
Since 17th c., archaic and literary or playful; not in ordinary spoken use.
βc1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 9 To geten þe stynkyng loue of damyselis. 1483Cath. Angl. 89 Damesselle..nimpha. a1550Christis Kirke Gr. ii, To dans thir damysellis thame dicht, thir lassis licht of laitis. 1558Knox First Blast (Arb.) 52 Aged fathers and tendre damiselles.
γ1535Coverdale Zech. viii. 5 Yonge boyes and damselles, playnge vpon the stretes. 1687Congreve Old Bach. iii. vi, Good words, damsel, or I shall ―. 1712Steele Spect. No. 278 ⁋2 You will not deny your Advice to a distressed Damsel. 1832W. Irving Alhambra II. 139 Awed and abashed in the presence of a simple damsel of fifteen. 1870Dickens E. Drood viii, The two young men saw the damsels enter the court-yard of the Nuns' House.
ε1522Skelton Why not to Court 209 With Dalyda to mell, That wanton damozell. 1576Act 18 Eliz. c. 7 §1 Of Women, Maids, Wives and Damosels. 1611Bible Mark v. 39, 41 The damosell is not dead, but sleepeth..Damosell (I say vnto thee), arise. 1642Rogers Naaman 7 A poore damosell and captive. 1704J. Pitts Acc. Mohammetans 27 The Father of the Damosel usually makes up the Match.
ζ1632Quarles Div. Fancies iii. vii, Dam'sel arise? When death had clos'd her eyes, What power had the Dam'sel to arise? 1718Prior Solomon ii. 301 And one mad Dam'sel dares dispute my pow'r.
†3. A maid in waiting, a female attendant. Originally a young lady of gentle birth, as maid of honour or waiting-woman to a lady of rank; but gradually extended downward. Now Obs. exc. as merged in 2.
[1199Rot. Chartarum 25/2 Beatriciae et Aeliciae domicellis praedictae reginae sororis nostrae.] c1314Guy Warw. (A.) 618 Felice þe feir answerd þo [to her maid], Damisel, sche seyd, whi seistow so? 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. ix. 12 Dobet is hir damoisele [C. xi. 138 damesele] sire doweles douȝter To serue þis lady lelly. c1489Caxton Blanchardyn ix. 39 A goode auncyent damoysell whiche dyde norisshe her of her brestys..called her nouryce and maystresse. 1594Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits x. (1596) 130 He sent his damsels [ancillas suas] to call to the Castle. 1649Roberts Clavis Bibl. 387 His friends and her Damosels, being the foure speakers. 1664Butler Hud. ii. i. 98 A slender Young waiting damsel to attend her. 1833H. Martineau Loom & Lugger ii. v. 100 The terrified kitchen damsels.
II. transf.
4. A hot iron for warming a bed.
App. a humorous allusion to 1 Kings i. 1–4.
1727–51Chambers Cycl., Damsel, a kind of utensil put in beds, to warm old mens feet withal. It consists of a hot iron inclosed in a hollow cylinder, which is wrapped round with linen cloth..Some call it a nun. 1848–9Southey Common-pl. Bk. IV. 434.
5. A projection on the spindle of a mill-stone for shaking the shoot.
1880Antrim & Down Gloss., Damsel, an iron rod with projecting pins, that shakes the shoot of the hopper in a corn mill. 1880Jefferies Gt. Estate 167 Tibbald, of course, had his joke about that part of the [mill] machinery which is called the ‘damsel’.
III. 6. attrib., as damsel train, etc. Comb. damsel-errant, feminine of knight-errant (Scott, after Spenser's ‘errant Damozell’ in 1 ε); damsel-fish, a small brightly-coloured fish of the family Pomacentridæ; damsel-fly, the slender dragon-fly Agrion Virgo, and kindred species, called in French demoiselle.
a1592Greene & Lodge Looking Glasse i. (1861) 118 Ile send for all the damosell Queenes..To wait as hand maides to Remelia. 1671Milton Samson 721 Her harbinger, a damsel train behind. 1725Pope Odyss. xxiii. 46 At his nod the damsel-train descends. 1815Moore Lalla R., Parad. & Peri, The beautiful blue damsel flies. 1821Scott Kenilw. xxv, If any man shall find me playing squire of the body to a damosel-errant. 1840Browning Sordello i. 284 Flittered in the cool some azure damsel-fly. 1905D. S. Jordan Guide to Study of Fishes II. xxii. 381 The Pomacentridæ, called rock-pilots or damsel-fishes, are exclusively marine. 1931J. R. Norman Hist. Fishes xii. 246 Interesting examples of commensalism occur among the Pomacentrids or Damsel-fishes (Pomacentridae) of tropical coral reefs. 1968J. E. Randall Caribbean Reef Fishes 189 Many of the damselfishes are highly territorial and pugnacious.
Hence ˈdamselhood, the condition or age of a damsel, young-womanhood. ˈdamselish a., of or proper to a damsel (nonce-wds.).
1867Contemp. Rev. VI. 363 ‘One of the queene's damsélles’ is set forth as riding about (certainly in a very damselish way) at random..to find the desired champion. 1880Daily News 1 July, The great majority..had not reached the glory of damselhood; they were simply children. |