grandame
Archaic female elder
Grandame is an archaic or literary word for grandmother, or more broadly, an old woman.
The spelling granddam also appears.
In historical contexts, it may refer to a female ancestor: Our grandames told tales of the old country.
The word survives mainly in period literature and deliberately old-fashioned speech.
Ancestral family member
- progenitorAncestor or originator
- foremotherFemale forebear
- lineageDescent from progenitors
- ancestryFamily line of descent
matrilineal · bloodline · genealogy · heritage · descendant · primogenitor · antecedent · predecessor
Titled widow of nobility
Dated slang for woman
- oldenOf a distant past
- antiquatedOld and outdated
- ElizabethanOf late 1500s England
- ChaucerianPertaining to fourteenth-century English poet
medieval · courtly · noblewoman · gentlewoman · forsooth · thee · thou · beldam
forebear
Ancestral family member
- progenitorAncestor or originator
- foremotherFemale forebear
- lineageDescent from progenitors
ancestry · matrilineal · bloodline · genealogy · heritage · descendant · primogenitor · antecedent · predecessor · kinfolk
dowager
Titled widow of nobility
godmother · elder · dame · doyenne · mama-bear · sibyl · patroness
dame
Dated slang for woman
- oldenOf a distant past
- antiquatedOld and outdated
- ElizabethanOf late 1500s England
Chaucerian · medieval · courtly · noblewoman · gentlewoman · forsooth · thee · thou · beldam · goodwife
grandamegranddaughter
Son's or daughter's daughter
grandchild · great-granddaughter · descendant · granddaughters · grandniece
grandmother, granny, grandma, grandparent, gran, grandchild, grandmas, grandmothers, great-grandma