Dictionary

beldame en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbɛldəm/
• (US) audio

Etymology

Inherited from late (1400–1450) Middle English beldame, beldam, from Middle English bel (“attractive, fine, good”) (from Old French bel (“beautiful”), from Latin bellus) + dame, dam (“a mother, lady”), itself ultimately from Latin domina (“a mistress, lady”).

Meanings

1. (obsolete) A grandmother.
   • Diſeaſed nature oftentimes breakes forth, / In ſtrange eruptions, oft the teeming earth / Is with a kind of collicke pincht and vext, / By the impriſoning of vnruly wind / Within her vvombe, vvhich for enlargement ſtriuing / Shakes the old Beldame earth, and topples down / Steeples and moſſegrovvn towers. c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
   • There he was welcom'd of that honeſt ſyre, / And of his aged Beldame homely well; / Who him beſought himſelfe to diſattyre, / And reſt himſelfe, till ſupper time befell. 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 470:
2. (archaic) An old woman, particularly an ugly one.
   • […] have a curiosity to hear my fortune told: therefore, Sam, order the beldame forward. 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Jane Eyre. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:
   • Therefore, the teacher of to-day is not the graybeard and beldame, but the man and woman most newly filled with the gathered experience of the world. 1898, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics – A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution, page 285:
   • The tablets upon which the events of the day were recorded refer to enchantresses, and we can conclude that they were by no means restricted to ancient beldames. 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 25:
   • Suddenly the beldam shrieks as if she's been stuck with a dagger, long rasping insuck of breath: ‘Eeeeeeeee!’ 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 6:
   • Justice is an old hobbling beldame, and I can't get her to keep pace with Generosity, for the soul of me. 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.i:
   • Among the large number of characters are [...] young boys and old knowledgeable beldames familiar with every lubricity, every love charm and potion. 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 62:

Forms

Antonyms

belchild (grandmother) · belsire (grandmother)

Synonyms

hag (ugly woman) · crone (ugly woman) · harridan (ugly woman)