-ess meaning: definition, etymology

-ess

suffix

/ɛs/ · /ɪs/

Etymology From Middle English -esse, borrowed from Old French -esse, from Late Latin -issa, from Ancient Greek -ισσα (-issa). Displaced Old English -en (feminine suffix of nouns).

Morpheme Used to form female equivalents.

actor + -ess → actress
chanter + -ess → chantress

4 more examples

duke + -ess → duchess (“female ruler of a duchy”)
god + -ess → goddess
lion + -ess → lioness
prince + -ess → princess (“daughter of monarch (holding this title in her own right, who would become a queen regnant); the female equivalent of a prince”)

Morpheme The wife of.

alderman + -ess → aldermaness (“alderman’s wife”)
duke + -ess → duchess (“duke’s wife”)

4 more examples

mayor + -ess → mayoress (“mayor’s wife”)
priest + -ess → priestess (“priest’s wife”)
prince + -ess → princess (“prince’s wife (who would become a queen consort)”)
squire + -ess → squiress (“squire’s wife”)

-ess

suffix

Etymology From Old French -esse, from Latin -itia.

Idiomatic, Morpheme Used to form nouns from adjectives.

Derived terms: duress, fortress

-ess

suffix

Etymology From Middle English -eis, a borrowing from Old French -eis, a locative suffix descended from Latin -ensis. The French and Middle English suffixes created nouns describing a freeman of a fortified town, but in Modern English this is found only in proper nouns, particularly in certain surnames. Cognates include Italian -ese, and English English -ese is a doublet.

Idiomatic, Morpheme Used to form proper nouns from nouns.

Derived terms: Burgess

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.