abbotess
abbotess is the obsolete form of abbess.
Meaning of abbess
Noun
abbess (plural abbesses)
- A female superior or governess of a nunnery, or convent of nuns, having the same authority over the nuns which the abbots have over the monks.
- The abbess was always after the nuns to keep the convent immaculately clean.
- Synonyms:
- mother superior
- A woman who runs a brothel; a woman employed by a prostitute to find clients.
- Why laſt night, as Colonel Kill'em, Sir William Weezy, Lord Frederick Foretop, and I were careleſsly ſliding the Ranelagh round, picking our teeth, after a damn'd muzzy dinner at Boodle's, who ſhould trip by but an abbeſs, well known about town, with a ſmart little nun in her ſuite.1770, Samuel Foote, The Lame Lover, a Comedy in Three Acts. […], London: […] Paul Vaillant; and sold by P[eter] Elmsly […]; and Robinson and Roberts, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 12
- Synonyms:
- bawd, Covent Garden abbess, lady abbess, madam
Forms of abbotess
| plural | abbotesses |
|---|
Origin of abbotess
From Middle English abbodesse, from Old English abbadisse, abbodyse, from Medieval Latin abbātissa; equivalent to abbot + -ess.
Questions about abbotess
- What is abbotess the obsolete form of?
- Abbotess is the obsolete form of abbess.
Words near abbotess in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: abbotess (page history and authors); abbess (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “abbotess.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/abbotess. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.