Re: "Madam"/"Madame" Chair/man/person (was: Umlauts)

On 29 Oct 2003 at 16:18, Mark J. Reed wrote:

> To take this a bit further off-topic (sorry) - what's with the
> <Madam>/<Madame> spelling difference?
>
> I was taught that a "madam" (or several "madams") ran a whorehouse,
> while "Madame" (or several "Mesdames") was the title form.  But it
> seems that "Madam" is used all the time in titles, including that
> of Madeleine Albright's book, _Madam_Secretary_.
>
> So what's the straight dope? :)
>
> -Mark
"Madam" is English, "Madame" is artificially-Frenchified.





Paul