Mayden

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old spelling for a young, unmarried woman or girl, especially one regarded as pure and inexperienced
2. A variant form, used in older English texts, for a girl who has not yet married
3. Archaic term for a young unwed female, found in medieval and early modern writing

Etymology: "Mayden" is simply an obsolete spelling of "maiden", so the history of the two words is the same. The Middle English form "mayden" and its variant "meiden" come from Old English "mæġden", which meant "girl" and was a diminutive of "mæġeþ", also "girl". The diminutive ending "-en" turned a root meaning "girl" into a word for a little girl, a pattern that shows up in many Germanic languages. The root "mæġeþ" goes back to Proto-Germanic "*magaþs", whose ancestors meant "young person" or "kinsman's child" in the sense of a relative of the same generation, so the word was tied from the start to the idea of youth. Over the centuries English narrowed "maid" and "maiden" to young unmarried women, and "maiden" later picked up the sense of a first or inaugural event, as in "maiden voyage". Spelling settled on "maiden" by the early modern period, leaving "mayden" as a fossil of Middle English usage.

Synonyms: maiden, virgin, girl