How to understand dame as a paradoxical word? my dictionary said dame could describe a woman with special honors. It also said this word may cause offense. It got me confused why would someone feel of

Cerca tra vari insegnanti di Inglese...

Damon

How to understand dame as a paradoxical word?

my dictionary said dame could describe a woman with special honors. It also said this word may cause offense. It got me confused why would someone feel offended when people call her dame?

6 gen 2017 13:34

Commenti · 3

Another use of the word 'dame' is in the phrase 'pantomime dame', which is "a comic middle-aged female character in modern pantomime, usually played by a man". In England we don't use the word 'dame' much in normal conversation. Only when talking about pantomimes or people with special honours (e.g. "Dame Judi Dench" "Is she a dame now?"). The word is used by some people (very informally) to talk about a very sexy woman so I suppose it could cause offence if said in a derogatory (disrespectful) way..

6 gennaio 2017

You're confused because you chose to rely on a dictionary. :)

Men with special honours are called Knights. Women with special honours are called Dames. This is an old British tradition (and embarrassingly, a past Australian prime minister recently tried to re-introduce the tradition here).

"Dame" can also be used to mean "a random woman". I take it as a US usage... it makes me think of trashy detective stories. By the way, we don't use the term in Australia.

There are many kinds of English. :D

6 gennaio 2017