-ess

Appendix:Variations of "ess" English Etymology 1 en :inh enm:-esse<id:feminine> 1 From en enm -esse feminine, borrowed from en fro -esse, from en la-lat -issa, from en grc -ισσα. Displaced ang -en feminine suffix of nouns. Pronunciation en /ɛs/ /ɪs/ /əs/ en LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl--ess.wav Southern England Suffix + en female Used to form female equivalents. en -a -ette -ine -ress she- -trix en he- en actor -ess actress en chanter -ess chantress en duke -ess duchess female ruler of a duchy en god -ess goddess en lion -ess lioness en 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 en wife The wife of. en alderman -ess aldermaness alderman’s wife en duke -ess duchess duke’s wife en mayor -ess mayoress mayor’s wife en priest -ess priestess priest’s wife en prince -ess princess prince’s wife (who would become a queen consort) en squire -ess squiress squire’s wife Usage notes Professions ending in -ter or -tor change to -tr when this suffix is added. A female sempster is a sempstress; a female actor is an actress. However, there are also terms with -ter-ess. en painter → en paintress, en painteress Additionally, sometimes terms ending in -der/-dor can change to -dr when this suffix is added. Other changes are: -ger to -gr, -per to -pr, -pher to -phr. en attender → en attendress; en bartender → en bartendress, en bartenderess; en founder → en foundress, en founderess en vendor → en vendress en tiger → en tigress en usurper → en usurpress en philosopher → en philosophress, en philosopheress As in Romance languages, the masculine form may be used when referring to both males and females; however, in other cases using the masculine and feminine forms together may be preferred. Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were very popular actors. The zoo has a breeding pair of tigers. Twelve gods (or: Twelve gods and goddesses) form the Greek pantheon. but: A procession of dukes and duchesses filed into the coronation. The unusual word en marquess denotes males (the -ess ending is not this suffix; the feminine is en marchioness). This suffix is sometimes regarded as sexist and as such is starting to fall into disuse, particularly when referring to professions. A single, gender-neutral term (i.e., an epicene form) is preferred by some even though it is a less specific term. Many terms such as en authoress or en sculptress are considered dated and rarely used outside of historical references, and other forms such as en doctress or en philosophress are virtually obsolete. Usage is divided on words such as en actress or en waitress, which remain common but are deprecated by some, including some women who hold those positions. Use with titles of nobility is still universal (prince is never used to refer to a woman outside of special circumstances, only princess). Glenda Jackson is a famous actor. Glenda Jackson is a famous actress. More specific language signaling that Glenda is a female. Depending on etymology, other feminine affixes are used; see synonyms. Derived terms en en female en wife Translations female suffix Albanian: sq -onje onjë f, sq -eshë f Amharic: am -ት f -t Arabic: ar ـَة f Bengali: bn -ঈ, bn -ইনী, bn -নী, bn -আ Breton: br -ez f Burmese: my မ Chinese: Mandarin: cmn 女 nǚ- 女-, cmn 母 mǔ- 母- Danish: da -inde Dutch: nl -in f, nl -esse f Esperanto: eo -ino Finnish: fi -tar, fi -tär French: fr -esse f, fr -euse f, fr -e f Galician: gl -esa f German: de -in f (de -trix f, de -öse f) Greek: el -ισσα f Ancient Greek: grc -ῐσσᾰ f Hebrew: he ־ה -a, he ־ית -it Hindi: hi -नी Hungarian: hu -nő Ido: io -ino Interlingua: ia -essa, ia -a Irish: ga ban- Italian: it -essa f Latin: la -trīx f, la -issa f Late Latin, borrowed from Greek Norman: nrf -êsse f Norwegian: Bokmål: nb -inne m f, nb -ske m f, nb -esse m f Old English: ang -en f Polish: pl -ka f Portuguese: pt -a f, pt -esa f Romanian: ro -iță f, ro -easă f Russian: ru -ка f, ru -ша f, ru -ица f, ru -ница f, ru -и́са f, ru -е́сса f, ru -а f, ru -чица f, ru -иня f, ru -ыня f, ru -и́ха f, ru -ья f, ru -у́ха f Sranan Tongo: srn uma- Swedish: sv -inna, sv -essa, sv -ska Ukrainian: uk -еса Volapük: vo ji- Welsh: cy -es f wife of Hungarian: hu -né Polish: pl -owa f Etymology 2 en :inh enm:-esse<id:abstract nominal> 1 en enm -esse abstract nominal, from en fro -ece, fro -esce, from en la -itia. Suffix en suffix en abstract noun en no longer productive Used to form nouns from adjectives. Derived terms en duress fortress Etymology 3 From en enm -eis, a borrowing from Old French fro -eis, a locative suffix descended from Latin la -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 it -ese, and English en -ese is a doublet. Suffix en suffix en no longer productive Used to form proper nouns from nouns. Derived terms en Burgess References Anagrams en ess SEs SSE ses SES -ses en productive suffixes Middle English Suffix enm suffix 1 enm -esse Norwegian Bokmål Etymology nb de -es semitone-lowering suffix; flat. The German musical suffix belongs to a note-naming convention that developed from German organ tablature. An e-shaped sign appended to note letters was derived from Tironian shorthand, in which such signs represented word-final -is or -es. The convention became lexicalized in German note names, producing forms such as de Cis and de Fis for raised notes and de Des and de Ges for lowered notes. Norwegian adapted the lowering suffix as nb -ess. The corresponding raising suffix is nb -iss, likewise based on German de -is. Compare also the shortened lowering variant -ss, corresponding to German de -s, as in nb ass and nb bess. Pronunciation nb /-esː/ [-esː] nb esː 1 nb ess Ess nb -ess Suffix nb suffix m definite singular -essen indefinite plural -esser definite plural -essene nb music flat; appended to the name of a musical note to indicate that it is lowered by one semitone nb I gess viser suffikset -ess at tonen g er senket et halvt tonetrinn. In gess, the suffix -ess indicates that the note G is lowered by one semitone. nb Lær musikkteori med Musikk-undervisning.no Musikk-undervisning.no https://musikk-undervisning.no/musikk/musikkteori 2026-09-19 Hvis det kommer en ♭ på en tone, får den endelsen -ess, når man utaler den. If a ♭ is added to a note, it receives the ending -ess when pronounced. https://web.archive.org/web/20260921042301/https://musikk-undervisning.no/musikk/musikkteori 21 September 2026 Antonyms nb -iss semitone-raising suffix; sharp Derived terms nb ass assess cess cessess dess dessess ess essess fess fessess gess gessess hess hessess References Anagrams nb ess ess Ess ses