beldame

English

Alternative forms

• beldam

Etymology

From late (1400–1450) Middle English bel (“good”), from Old French bel (“beautiful”) + Latin bellus + dam (“mother”), Middle English dame.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛldəm/
• Rhymes: -ɛldəm

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

beldame (plural beldames)

1. (obsolete) A grandmother.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 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]:

     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.

2. (now archaic) An old woman, particularly an ugly one.
   • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.i:

     Justice is an old hobbling beldame, and I can't get her to keep pace with Generosity, for the soul of me.

   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:

     […] have a curiosity to hear my fortune told: therefore, Sam, order the beldame forward.

   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 25:

     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.

   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 6:

     Suddenly the beldam shrieks as if she's been stuck with a dagger, long rasping insuck of breath: ‘Eeeeeeeee!’

Synonyms

• (ugly woman): crone, hag, harridan
• See also Thesaurus:ugly person

Antonyms

• (grandmother): belsire, belchild

References

• “beldame”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Anagrams

• embaled

Spanish

Verb

beldame

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of beldar combined with me