Definition of "Madam"

The conſtant queſtion, upon her offering to ſtir abroad, was, where are you going Madam? To ſee the King my papa, replied the Princeſs. That cannot be Madam. No? why ſo? It is not the Etiquette. — And thus, if ſhe had a mind to viſit any of the Mesdames, the king’s ſiſters or aunts, ſhe was always told, it was not the Etiquette.

1792, I. G. Rievethal, Lectures Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Young People, Who Apply Themselves to the English Tongue, Riga: I. Fr. Hartknoch, pages 49–50

And nowadays the Madam will blame the Worker’s Unions […] Very unnatural but the Mesdames take the girls for granted

2008, Dave M. Save, Mano a Mano—Quote, Unquote, iUniverse, page 423

After two years, Madam X was busy enough to take on a partner: Madam Z, aged twenty. Both regularly scouted new marks and told Stead that ‘nurse girls’ (nannies) were the best: ‘there are any number in [the parks] every morning and all are virgins’. Selling maidenhoods was their speciality. ‘Our gentlemen want maids,’ they said, ‘not damaged articles.’ ‘Come,’ he said to the mesdames, ‘what do you say to delivering me five [girls] on Saturday next? . . Could you deliver me a parcel of maids, for me to distribute among my friends?’ Within a fortnight, the Mesdames had supplied Stead with seven girls between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.

2012, Bridget O’Donnell, Inspector Minahan Makes a Stand: The Missing Girls of England, Picador

For the Mesdames Stuart and Scaglia, finding first and maiden names has taken some archival digging, mainly because of the conventional use of ‘Madam’.

2021, Randi Margrete Selvik, Svein Gladsø, Annabella Skagen, editors, Relevance and Marginalisation in Scandinavian and European Performing Arts 1770–1860: Questioning Canons, Routledge