milady

English

Alternative forms

• m'lady

Etymology

Partly representing a colloquial pronunciation of my +‎ lady, partly from French milady, from English my Lady. Compare milord.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɪˈleɪdi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪdi

Noun

milady (plural miladies)

1. (now chiefly historical or humorous) An English noblewoman or gentlewoman; the form of address to such a person; a lady. [from 18th c.]

Translations

English noblewoman

• Bulgarian: миледи f (miledi)
• French: milady (fr) f
• Greek: μιλέδη (el) f (milédi)
• Hungarian: méltóságos asszony
• Russian: миле́ди (ru) f (milédi), суда́рыня (ru) f (sudárynja)

Verb

milady (third-person singular simple present miladies, present participle miladying, simple past and past participle miladied or miladyed)

1. To address as “milady”.
   • 1856 August 16, “Spa”, in The Illustrated London News, volume XXIX, number 816, London: William Little […], page 162, column 2:

     It may be as well to warn travellers of certain suspicious, half-genteel-looking men, speaking bad English, and Miladying every female.

   • 1885, Antonio [Carlo Napoleone] Gallenga, “First Repentance. […]”, in Episodes of My Second Life. (American and English Experiences.), Philadelphia, Pa.: J. B. Lippincott & Co., page 275:

     To the ignorant Italians who milorded or miladied them, they were always anxious to explain that they “had no titles, and would be sorry to have any,”—that the members of the House of Lords were for the most part mere upstarts, and that the true nobility of England were the old land-owners,—the county families,—before whose names men only placed the plain Mr. and Mrs. by which they themselves, the Crawleys, preferred to be designated.

   • 1900, “Two Girls”, in Arthur B[attishill] Yolland, transl., Debts of Honor, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, translation of Mire megvénülünk by Maurus Jókai, page 225:

     With Czipra, tête-à-tête, he spoke also “per tu;” before others he miladyed her.

   • 2019, Julia Justiss, The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife, Harlequin, →ISBN, chapter seventeen:

     Within a space of twenty-four hours, I’ve gone from being “Miss Lattimar” to “Mrs Newell” to “Countess of Fensworth”. When the shopkeepers “miladyed” me this morning, I kept looking around to see which titled female had arrived.

   • 2021, Lish McBride, Curses, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, pages 137 and 234:

     “He thinks of himself as an old-fashioned knight. Lots of chivalry. I will get miladyed to death. He will probably try to serenade me.” […] Prepare to be good-sirred and miladyed to death, if not by Cedric, then by his parrot.

Anagrams

• maidly

French

Etymology

From English my Lady.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi.lɛ.di/ ~ /mi.le.di/

Noun

milady f (plural miladys)

1. lady, milady

Further reading

• “milady”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English milady.

Noun

milady f (uncountable)

1. milady

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Please edit the entry and supply |def= and |pl= parameters to the {{ro-noun-f}} template.

References

• milady in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Swedish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English milady.

Noun

milady c

1. (now chiefly historical or humorous) A milady; an English noblewoman or gentlewoman.
   • 1836, Jane Austen, translated by Paulina Westdahl, Familjen Elliot, page 3:

     Det dröjde icke länge innan den unga makan blef öfvertygad derom, att man kan blifva milady och en skön karls hustru utan att derföre vara dess lyckligare; […]

     It did not take long before the young wife was convinced that one can become a milady and the wife of a handsome man without being happier; […]