How do an older, unmarried woman and a younger, married woman address each other? Are they both “madame”?
Which one had higher status (in the old days, I mean)?
Seeing as this is MPSIMS, I shall relate:
I address my girlfriend as Madame, when I am feeling friendly, and Madamoiselle when I am feeling horny.
However, neither of us are French so I guess that is not important.
To address your question, Madame would be either married, or the senior of the two, Mademoiselle the younger - but unmarried.
If both were married they would refer to each other as Madame.
This is not a particularly informed response since I don’t speak French, but I always assumed it was similar to the distinction between señora and señorita in Spanish - the latter is a diminutive version and would usually apply to a young woman / girl while an older woman would be addressed with the former. There’s also “Mrs.” and “Miss” in English, although here there’s an implication of married vs. unmarried, which I’m not sure the French monikers would necessarily connote.
Not quite, the official version was that señoritas were unmarried and señoras were married, but this suffered from regional complications. Generally, if an unmarried woman was called señora by those who knew her marital status, it meant she was a landowner… but there were also cases where a heiress would be called señorita after a marriage and three children, as she’d been la señorita for so long that it had pretty much become part of her name.
My great-aunt M had the most amazing way to cry/whine *“¡señorita!” *in a completely indignant voice any time someone made the mistake to call her señora. She was not married thankyouverymuch; also, she spent about half her life under a legal system in which women were treated as legally incapable, and by pointing out that she was not married she staved off requests for her husband. Anybody who wanted to deal with her had to deal with her, even if she eventually had to call her brother-and-legal-keeper to sign whatever papers :rolleyes:
As for the status part in the OP, it would depend on many other factors: social classes, income levels, social status of husband/father (if applicable)… the 5yo future Comtesse de Je Me L’ai Inventé would have a higher social status than the 40yo married cook at the Cheval Blanc, but lower than the married-to-God Abbesse de L’Olivert.
I wonder if some people feel the same about señora or madame as some people here do about ma’am.
Whew, complicated or what? You can see why “Yo, bitch” has gained ground 