| 释义 | beldam, -dame|ˈbɛldəm|
Forms: 5–9 beldame, 7 belldame, 5– beldam.
[Not a direct adoption of the F. belle dame ‘fair lady,’ but formed upon dam, earlier dame, in its Eng. sense of ‘mother,’ with bel- employed to express relationship, as in belsire, belfader: see bel B. For the transference to a more remote ancestor see also belsire; for the extension to old woman, etc., cf. gaffer, gammer, goody, grandame, granny.]
†1. A father or mother's mother, a grandmother. Also fig. Obs.
c1440Promp. Parv. 29 Beldam [v.r. beldame], faders and moders modyr, bothe. 1483Cath. Angl. 27 Beldame, auia. c1483Caxton Bk. Trav. in Promp. Parv. 29 note, Recommaunde me to your bel-fadre, and to your bel dame, à vostre tayon et à vostre taye. 1530Palsgr. 179/2 Beldame, meregrant. c1550Paynell tr. Vives' Duty Husb. (T.) The mother, the beldame, the aunt, the sister, the cosyn. 1593Shakes. Lucr. 953 To shew the beldame daughters of her daughter. 1613Drayton Polyolb. vi. (T.) The beldam and the girl, the grandsire and the boy. 1628Milton Vac. Exerc. 46 When beldam Nature in her cradle was
†b. A great-grandmother, or still more remote ancestress; by Plot used for a woman who has lived to see five generations of female descendants.
1679Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 322 She lived to be a Beldam, that is to see the sixt generation. 1863Chambers Bk. of Days I. 306 At the same rate she might have been beldam at sixty six.
2. An aged woman, a matron of advanced years. (In 16th c. used in addressing nurses.)
1580Gifford Gilloflowers (1875) 98 And thus..This aged beldam speakes. 1596Spenser F.Q. iii. ii. 43 [To ‘her aged nourse’] ‘Beldame, your words doe worke me litle ease.’ 1598Drayton Heroic. Ep. xix. 15 Here is no Beldam Nurse, to powt nor lowre. 1709Steele Tatler No. 83 ⁋2, I am neither Childish-young, nor Beldam-old. 1752Foote Taste i. i, This superannuated Beldame gapes for Flattery. 1768Beattie Minstr. i. xliii, Her legend when the Beldame 'gan impart. 1821Byron Sardan. i. ii. (1868) 352 That blood-loving beldame, My martial grandam. 1856Longfellow Blind Girl i. 122 The beldame, wrinkled and gray takes the young bride by the hand.
3. esp. with depreciative sense: A loathsome old woman, a hag; a witch; a furious raging woman (without the notion of age), a virago.
a1586Sidney Arcadia (1613) 10 A beldame..accused for a witch. 1608R. Johnson Sev. Champions 212 Come all you witches, beldames, and Fortunetellers. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 177 Tarquinius taking her to be some frantick Beldame. 1706Addison Rosamond i. iii, Fly from my passion, Baldame, fly! 1822Scott Nigel xxxv, That accursed beldam whom she caused to work upon me. 1857F. Locker Lond. Lyrics (1862) 100 The beldams shriek, the caldron bubbles. |
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