Other forms: damsels
A damsel is a young noblewoman of old stories — the one in the tower, the one the knight is riding towards. The word belongs to romance and legend, and almost nowhere else.
In modern English it survives almost entirely in one phrase, damsel in distress, and that phrase is now used far more often to criticise a plot than to describe one. Outside it, damsel sounds archaic or mocking. There is one everyday exception: a damselfly is a real insect, smaller and more delicate than a dragonfly, and there the word is entirely neutral. Note the pronunciation — DAM-zel, with the stress at the front.
1noundamselA young noblewoman, in old stories.
“The knight rescues a damsel and marries her by the last page.”
synonyms: maiden
2nounslenderA slender insect like a small dragonfly.
“There were damselflies over the pond all afternoon.”
damsel is a young woman in stories.
Latin domina meant a lady or mistress of a household, and Vulgar Latin made a small one of her: domnicella, a little lady. Old French turned that into damoisele, and the masculine equivalent came into English separately as damoiseau and then, much altered, as damsel's opposite number, the squire.
Old French
damoisele
Middle English
dameisele
English, today
damsel
From Middle English dameisele, from Old French damoisele. From Middle English dameisele, from Old French damoisele, from Vulgar Latin domnicella, a diminutive from Classical Latin domina (“mistress, lady”), from dominus, from demh₂-. a doublet of demoiselle and doncella and donzella.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Myths & Legends, Fairy Tales & Folklore