damsel

[ dam-zuhl ]

noun

, Literary.

1. a young woman or girl; a maiden, originally one of gentle or noble birth.

damsel

/ ˈdæmzəl /

noun

1. archaic.
   a young unmarried woman; maiden

Word History and Origins

Origin of damsel¹

1150–1200; Middle English damisel < Anglo-French ( Old French damoisele ) < Vulgar Latin *dominicella, equivalent to Latin domin ( a ) lady ( dame ) + -i- -i- + -cella feminine diminutive suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of damsel¹

C13: from Old French damoisele, from Vulgar Latin domnicella (unattested) young lady, from Latin domina mistress; see dame

Example Sentences

For most of the genre’s history, telenovelas have portrayed female protagonists as damsels in distress who require male saviors.

From Time

Not only, in the rarest of cases, where there a female lead in a blockbuster action movie, but the damsel in distress was a dude.

From The Daily Beast

Ramis and Aykroyd want it both ways: an empowered heroine, and the standard damsel in distress.

From The Daily Beast

For example: the damsel is tied to the train tracks, the Pacific Union hurtling her way.

From The Daily Beast

Does the final in the Twilight series or the latest adaptation of the Tolstoy classic handle the damsel-in-distress theme better?

From The Daily Beast

Nicole Kidman stretched as a Southern damsel in The Paperboy, but the movie was widely panned.

From The Daily Beast

Many other mines used them; one remained at work in Old Wheal Damsel in 1860.

From Project Gutenberg

He was met at the gates by a young damsel, habited as Flora, who delivered him the keys of the city.

From Project Gutenberg

The damsel, uninterrupted in her own loquacity, had not discovered that this witty gentleman was——dumb!

From Project Gutenberg

And such a voice as the little damsel had, it only wanted cultivation to have made her a fortune.

From Project Gutenberg

If the damsel smiled Once in seven years only, All their wanderings dreary Ample guerdon knew.

From Project Gutenberg