Note 212 — IV

And no less so in French with ‘dame’, by which form not ‘domina’ only, but ‘dominus’, was represented. Thus in early French poetry, “Dame Dieu” for “Dominus Deus” continually occurs. We have here the key to the French exclamation, or oath, as we now perceive it to be, ‘Dame’! of which the dictionaries give no account. See Génin’s Variations du Langage Français, p. 347.