maiden

From Middle English maiden, meiden, from Old English mæġden (“maiden, virgin, girl, maid, servant”), diminutive of mæġþ, mæġeþ (“maiden, virgin, girl, woman, wife”) via diminutive suffix -en, from Proto-Germanic *magaþs (“maid, virgin”), from Proto-Indo-European *maghu- (“fellow, bachelor”), equivalent to maid +‎ -en. Cognate with Dutch maagd (“virgin”), Old High German magad (“maiden”), modern German (Mädchen or Mädel (“young girl, lass, lassie”), Magd (“maidservant”)), Old Irish mug (“slave”), and Albanian mag (“a hare's young, hinnulus”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪdən/

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• Rhymes: -eɪdən

maiden (plural maidens)

1. (now chiefly literary) A girl or an unmarried young woman.
2. A female virgin.

   She's unmarried and still a maiden.

3. (obsolete, dialectal) A man with no experience of sex, especially because of deliberate abstention.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter iv, in Le Morte Darthur, book XI:

     As for that said sire Bors I wille be shryuen with a good wylle / Soo syr Bors was confessyd / and for al wymmen sir Bors was a vyrgyne / sauf for one / that was the doughter of kynge Brangorys / and on her he gat a child that hyghte Elayne / and sauf for her syre Bors was a clene mayden

4. A maidservant.
5. A clothes maiden.
6. (now rare) An unmarried woman, especially an older woman.
7. (horse racing) A racehorse without any victory, i.e. one having a "virgin record".
8. (historical) A Scottish counterpart of the guillotine.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wharton to this entry?)

9. (cricket) A maiden over.
10. (obsolete) A machine for washing linen.
11. (Wicca) Alternative form of Maiden

• (unmarried (young) female): bachelorette

• maid

maiden (not comparable)

1. Virgin.
   • William Thackeray

     a surprising old maiden lady

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House

     It was just the middle of October when I moved in with my maiden sister […]

2. (of a female, human or animal) Without offspring.
3. Like or befitting a (young, unmarried) maiden.
   • Shakespeare

     Have you no modesty, no maiden shame?

4. (figuratively) Being a first occurrence or event.

   The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage.

   After Edmund Burke's maiden speech, William Pitt the Elder said Burke had "spoken in such a manner as to stop the mouths of all Europe" and that the Commons should congratulate itself on acquiring such a member.

   • 2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado took his maiden victory and Williams's first since 2004 in a strategic battle with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

5. (cricket) Being an over in which no runs are scored.
6. Fresh; innocent; unpolluted; pure; hitherto unused.
   • Shakespeare

     maiden flowers

   • Shakespeare

     Full bravely hast thou fleshed / Thy maiden sword.

7. (of a fortress) Never having been captured or violated.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of T. Warton to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Macaulay to this entry?)

8. (of a tree) Grown from seed and never pruned

• maidenly

• Damien, Manide, Median, Medina, Midean, aidmen, demain, maenid, mained, median, medina, meidan

• maitten

maiden

1. Genitive plural form of maa.

• median