madamhood

Noun

madamhood (uncountable)

1. The fact or state of being a woman of high rank or respect.
   • It is, however, to be observed, that the office of Hofdame confers in Germany the same title of Madame, and that every one of the charming “ Misses” who surround our Queen would in Germany be invested with the dignity of Madamhood.1859 January 8, The Athenæum
2. The fact or state of being a madam in charge of a brothel.
   • However derivative, a woman's status translated into real differences in daily working conditions, personal control over income, and possibilities for negotiating an advantageous exit from prostitution into concubinage or madamhood.1991, Gail Hershatter, in Watson and Ebrey, Marriage and Equality in Chinese Society, p. 280
   • Alice Kerr-Sutherland, a no-nonsense governess who in the early years of the century had abandoned her errant but legitimate little charges to pursue the high road of madamhood. Her flagellation brothel in St James’s was a place of resort for the gentry and nobility […].1994, Christopher Hitchens, ‘On Spanking’, London Review of Books, volume 16, number 20