Madonna definition

English Madonna definition

Alternative forms

• Madona (obsolete)

Etymology

From Italian madonna, from Old Italian ma (“my”) + donna (“lady”). The given name is derived from the English term, not used as a given name in Italy. Doublet of madam.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /məˈdɒnə/

Proper noun

Madonna (plural Madonnas)

1. (sometimes with the definite article) The Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus.
2. A female given name from Italian.
   • 1835 Fraser's Magazine, Vol. XI, page 652 (June 1835):

     We feel bound to add, however, that it is not very likely, in the usual chances of events, that such names as Alaric Attila Watts should have met in matrimony with those of Zillah Madonna Wiffen; and an unkind world may suggest a mystification somewhere.

   • 2005 Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics, Allen Lane (2005), →ISBN, page 184:

     But celebrities actually have a weak effect on baby names. As of 2000, the pop star Madonna had sold 130 million records worldwide but hadn't generated even the ten copycat namings―in California, no less―required to make the master index of four thousand names from which the sprawling list of girls' names on page 227 was drawn.

   • 2013 February, Alan Baggett, God’s Will, →ISBN, page 39:

     MADONNA(S) Yes. (They look at each other with surprise. The room goes silent.) MR. STEIN Two Madonnas? (Pause.) MR. STEIN Did either of you know God? EIGHTIES MADONNA I knew of Him. BIBLICAL MADONNA We had a Son together. MR. STEIN […] I’m going to have to ask you to leave. (The eighties Madonna gets up with a smile and then without uttering another word flounces out of the room loudly humming the tune ‘Like a Virgin’.)

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

Madonna (plural Madonnas)

1. An artistic representation of the Virgin Mary, chiefly when holding the infant Jesus.

   A beautiful example of this type of Madonna is the polyptych in the Museo Civico in Sansepolcro.

   • 1913, “Art Galleries of Florence”, in The World’s Progress: With Illustrative Texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American Literature, Fully Illustrated, volume IX, Chicago, Ill.: The Delphian Society, page 114:

     So many Madonnas were produced during the Renaissance that it became the habit to distinguish them by any peculiarity.

2. A morally pure woman.
   • 2000, Deborah Copaken Kogan, Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War, Villard Books, →ISBN, page 52:

     “Men,” I said, with a tone of disgust. “Halal circles, haram circles, good, bad, Madonnas, whores, goats, penises, it’s all the same.”

   • 2008, Paul Gordon, Dial “M” for Mother: A Freudian Hitchcock, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, →ISBN, page 205:

     […] the mothers who, like Sebastian’s mother in Notorious or Mitch’s mother Lydia in The Birds, block such a transference, or by potential love-objects who are, themselves, Madonnas, whores, or otherwise thinly disguised maternal figures.

   • 2008, Maureen Canning, Lust, Anger, Love: Understanding Sexual Addiction and the Road to Healthy Intimacy, Sourcebooks, Inc., →ISBN, page 182:

     The Madonnas are the mothers to our children, the pillars of our families, and the goddesses of our communities. The Madonnas shun the dark side of human sexuality and banish the whores to hell. We put the Madonnas on a pedestal, and we can’t think of them as being sexual or sexy because they must be pure. They must be virginal like the Madonna herself.

   • 2013, Devorah Heitner, Black Power TV, Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 79:

     Sparing no one in her response to her interviewer’s questions about the ERA, she alludes to divisions within the women’s movement, referring to the factions as “Madonnas, whores, housewives, and lesbians.”

   • 2019, Chris Kelly; Carmen Hahn, Clinical Psychology, ED-Tech Press, published 2020, →ISBN, page 129:

     In sexual politics the view of women as either Madonnas or whores limits women’s sexual expression, offering two mutually exclusive ways to construct a sexual identity.

Alternative forms

• madonna

See also

• Mona

References

• Ginny Kubitz Moyer (11 January 2010), “Where did the title “Madonna” come from for Mary?”, in Busted Halo‎^[1], Paulist Fathers: “More rarely, it’s [“Madonna”] used for images that depict Mary without Jesus.”

Further reading

• Madonna on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Hungarian Madonna definition

Etymology

From Italian madonna, from Old Italian ma (“my”) + donna (“lady”). It was first attested in 1552 and its meaning was primarily (Italian) woman. Its use in the sense of the Virgin Mary was attested much later, in 1844.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɒdonːɒ]
• Hyphenation: Ma‧don‧na
• Rhymes: -nɒ

Proper noun

Madonna

1. Madonna (the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus)

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	Madonna	Madonnák
accusative	Madonnát	Madonnákat
dative	Madonnának	Madonnáknak
instrumental	Madonnával	Madonnákkal
causal-final	Madonnáért	Madonnákért
translative	Madonnává	Madonnákká
terminative	Madonnáig	Madonnákig
essive-formal	Madonnaként	Madonnákként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	Madonnában	Madonnákban
superessive	Madonnán	Madonnákon
adessive	Madonnánál	Madonnáknál
illative	Madonnába	Madonnákba
sublative	Madonnára	Madonnákra
allative	Madonnához	Madonnákhoz
elative	Madonnából	Madonnákból
delative	Madonnáról	Madonnákról
ablative	Madonnától	Madonnáktól
non-attributive possessive - singular	Madonnáé	Madonnáké
non-attributive possessive - plural	Madonnáéi	Madonnákéi

Possessive forms of Madonna
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	Madonnám	Madonnáim
2nd person sing.	Madonnád	Madonnáid
3rd person sing.	Madonnája	Madonnái
1st person plural	Madonnánk	Madonnáink
2nd person plural	Madonnátok	Madonnáitok
3rd person plural	Madonnájuk	Madonnáik

References

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Italian Madonna definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maˈdɔn.na/
• Rhymes: -ɔnna
• Hyphenation: Ma‧dòn‧na

Proper noun

Madonna

1. Madonna, Our Lady

   Synonyms: Vergine Maria, Maria

Anagrams

• mandano, mondana

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Polish Madonna definition

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian Madonna, from Latin mea domina.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maˈdɔn.na/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔnna
• Syllabification: Ma‧don‧na
• Homophone: madonna

Proper noun

Madonna f

1. (Christianity) Madonna, Our Lady

   Synonym: Matka Boska

2. (art, Christianity) artistic depiction of Mary with the infant Jesus

Declension

Further reading

• Madonna in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• Madonna in Polish dictionaries at PWN