damsel

   A damsel was originally a young unmarried lady of noble birth, but soon after the introduction of the word from French it appears to have taken on the general meaning of ‘young woman’, ‘a country lass’. In French the word demoiselle was ultimately a diminutive of Latin domina, ‘lady’. Used vocatively in former times, ‘damsel’ is either as polite as ‘young lady’ or as impersonal as ‘girl’ according to context. In Beaumont and Fletcher’s play The Wild-Goose Chase, Mirabel’s comment to Oriana: ‘Are you caught, damsel?’ shows the impersonal use. It is far more polite when Joseph, in Fielding’s Tom Jones, says to a stranger: ‘Be of good cheer, damsel’ In modern times the word would only be used jokingly, perhaps to a young lady who was experiencing difficulties of some kind, a ‘damsel in distress’, The latter phrase presumably became fossilized because of its convenient alliteration.