Maiden

How to spell maiden

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce maiden

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does maiden mean?

1. nounA young unmarried woman, used chiefly in older or literary contexts.
2. adjectiveBeing the first of its kind, as in a first occasion or attempt.
3. nounA woman's family surname before she married and took another.

Maiden in a sentence

• noun

  The old ballad tells of a maiden who waited by the shore.

• adjective

  The new ship set out on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic.

• noun

  The form asked her to enter her mother's maiden name for security.

• noun

  The painting shows a maiden in a flowing white gown.

• adjective

  She delivered her maiden speech in parliament to warm applause.

• noun

  She kept her maiden name for professional work after the wedding.

Where does maiden come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Maiden comes from the Old English mægden, a diminutive form of mægð, which meant a young woman, a virgin, or a girl. The Germanic roots behind it relate to a sense of youthfulness and an unmarried state, and close cousins survive in the modern German Magd (maidservant) and Mädchen (girl). Over time English shortened mægden into the everyday word 'maid', while 'maiden' kept its fuller form and a slightly more formal, literary flavour. From the idea of something youthful and untried grew the figurative adjective sense first recorded around the 1500s, as in a maiden voyage or a maiden speech, meaning the very first of its kind. The silent-looking 'ai' spelling and the unstressed second syllable are the small traps that trip writers up, even though the word is familiar.

How the word is built

• maid (young unmarried woman)
• -en (Old English diminutive ending)