• Madona(obsolete)

FromItalianmadonna, from OldItalianma(“my”) +donna(“lady”). The given name is derived from the English term, not used as a given name in Italy.Doublet ofmadam.

• IPA^(key):/məˈdɒnə/

• Audio(US):

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(the) Madonna (pluralMadonnas)

1. (Christianity, sometimes with definite article)Synonym ofMary,mother ofJesus,especially inCatholiccontexts.
2. A femalegiven name from Italian.
   • 1835 June,Fraser's Magazine, volume XI, page652:

     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 ZillahMadonna Wiffen; and an unkind world may suggest a mystification somewhere.

   • 2005, Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner,Freakonomics, Allen Lane, published2005,→ISBN, page184:

     But celebrities actually have a weak effect on baby names. As of 2000, the pop starMadonna 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, page39:

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

Madonna (pluralMadonnas)

1. Anartisticrepresentation of theVirgin Mary, chiefly when holding the infantJesus.

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

   • 1913, “Art Galleries of Florence”, inThe 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,page114:

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

2. Amorallypure woman.
   • 2000,Deborah Copaken Kogan,Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War,Villard Books,→ISBN, page52:

     “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, page205:

     […] the mothers who, like Sebastian’s mother inNotorious or Mitch’s mother Lydia inThe 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, page182:

     TheMadonnas are the mothers to our children, the pillars of our families, and the goddesses of our communities. TheMadonnas shun the dark side of human sexuality and banish the whores to hell. We put theMadonnas 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, page79:

     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, published2020,→ISBN, page129:

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

• madonna

• Mona

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

FromItalianmadonna, from Old Italianma(“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]

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

Madonna

1. Madonna(theVirgin Mary, the mother ofJesus)

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

Madonna ?

1. Madonna,Our Lady

   Synonyms:Vergine Maria,Maria

• mandano,mondana

Borrowed fromItalianMadonna, fromLatinmeadomina.

• IPA^(key):/maˈdɔn.na/

• Audio:

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

Madonna f

1. (Christianity)Madonna,Our Lady

   Synonym:Matka Boska

2. (art,Christianity) artisticdepiction ofMary with the infantJesus

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