ma'am
Pluralma'ams
Pluralma'ams
Formsma'ams, ma'aming, ma'amed
- 1Used as a polite, formal way of addressing a woman; a contraction of madam.
“Can I help you find something, ma'am?” the clerk asked.
The boy tipped his cap and said, “Good evening, ma'am,” as his neighbor walked past.
Similarmadam
Note
Madam lost its middle in speech, by way of a regional British pronunciation, and comedies of 1668 to 1700 show the spelling still unsettled: Mam in Dryden's An Evening's Love, Mame in Vanbrugh, Mem in Congreve's The Way of the World. Dryden's speaker scolds that madam is "a year in pronouncing". Yes'm and marm wear it down further still.
- 2Used as a respectful way of addressing a woman who holds a higher rank or position, such as a senior officer.
“The reports are on your desk, ma'am,” the lieutenant told the commanding officer.
When the senator entered, her aides stood and said, “Good morning, ma'am.”
Similarmadam
Note
Ranked services make it the counterpart of sir: an order from a female officer is answered with aye aye, ma'am or yes, ma'am, and the word closes almost every reply to her. Here it marks rank rather than manners, so it is owed to a superior whatever her age or the speaker's.
- 3To address a woman as “ma'am” when speaking to her.
Waiters in this town ma'am every woman over thirty, like it or not.
She laughed when the young cadet kept ma'aming her across the parade ground.
Note
The verb keeps the apostrophe through every form: ma'ams, ma'aming, ma'amed. It often carries a touch of complaint from the woman on the receiving end, as in Debra Clopton's Her Unexpected Cowboy (2014), where a visitor tells some well-mannered Texans they have "about ma'amed me to death" and asks to be called by her first name.
Less common meanings
- 4A title for a married woman, used before her surname.
The parish register lists her simply as Ma'am Whitcombe, wife of the blacksmith.
Visitors were told to wait in the parlor until Ma'am Ellis came down to greet them.
Similarmissus
Note
Before a surname it once did the work Mrs. does now, as in Ma'am Smith, the family matriarch. Its natural partner was Miss: in Sheridan's The Critic (1781), a drawing room is besieged by "Misses and Ma'ams" reciting Juliet and Ophelia. Used this way the word now has a period flavor; for a present-day married woman, Mrs. is the title.
- 5In American usage, a woman who teaches in a school.
The town hired a young ma'am from Ohio to teach at the prairie school.
The ma'am rang her handbell, and the children ran in from the schoolyard.
Similarschoolma'am
Note
It does the job of the longer schoolma'am and of schoolmarm, and all three now belong to the American past: a present-day speaker says teacher. Because ma'am on its own is heard as the polite form of address, the word reads as a job title only when the setting, a classroom or a schoolhouse, makes that clear.
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Practice
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Origin
The noun is a contraction of madam, representing a regional pronunciation of that word in the United Kingdom. The verb comes from the noun.