first lady
379
3.0
- noun
- /fɜrst ˈleɪdi/
:
primera dama
- I want you to meet the first lady.
- president and first lady
- many first ladies
You call your wife first lady and she calls you Sir?
- You call your wife first lady and she calls you Sir?
- And I mean, she's not the current first lady.
- And so he posts a picture of himself with President Biden and first lady Doctor Jill Biden.
- The new flowers in the garden are largely pastels, which are favored by the first lady.
- If I really, if I really wanted to be first lady and that's I felt like my whole life would be complete and that's what I was hanging on to.
Examples
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Presidential scholars tend to view the role of the first lady rather broadly.
Academic text (1998) -
Perhaps the first lady will continue her own career during her years in the White House.
Academic text (1998) -
The president and first lady took pictures with everyone at the party.
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You might wind up the first lady of the United States now.
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The president and first lady are safe.
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Someday you could be the first lady.
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Now please welcome first lady Michelle Obama.
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In my travels around the world as senator and first lady, I have met people from all walks of life.
Academic text (2007) -
500 million people are watching via satellite... as the president and first lady deplane for this historic Moscow visit.
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The president and first lady welcomed guests at the state dinner last night.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning "most prominent or influential woman" is directly derivable from combining 'first' (preceding or most important) with 'lady' (a woman), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the MWE. The collocational use as a formal title (e.g., the president's wife) is a conventionalized application but does not obscure the basic compositional meaning; many languages have a comparable literal compound, supporting transparency.
Etymology
The term first lady may come from the simple image of the first, meaning the most important, woman standing beside a leader and the word lady for a respected woman. People began to use it for the president's wife, so it now means 'the wife of a president or other head of state'.