Word.ws English Dictionary

presbytress

presbytress is the alternative form of presbyteress.

Meaning of presbyteress

Noun

presbyteress (plural presbyteresses)

  1. (historical) A presbyter or priest's wife.
    • Even a special blessing was included within the liturgy for the wives of married men on the day of their husband's ordination in the sixth century. These women were called presbyteresses (presbyterissae) and were entitled to wear special dress.1972, Charles A. Frazee, “The Origins of Clerical Celibacy in the Western Church”, in Church History, volume 41, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, →JSTOR, page 157
  2. (obsolete) A female presbyter (elder of the congregation in early Christianity).
    • Age was doubtless a requisite in presbyters, as it is here stated to have been in presbyteresses, with a view to their influence on the younger persons of their sex. They were supported by the Church, but not the only widows so supported.1863, Robert Jamieson, Andrew Robert Fausset, David Brown, A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments

Forms of presbytress

pluralpresbytresses

Origin of presbytress

From presbyter + -ess.

Questions about presbytress

What is presbytress the alternative form of?
Presbytress is the alternative form of presbyteress.

Words near presbytress in the dictionary

  1. presbytic
  2. presbytinan
  3. presbytinans
  4. presbytinnitus
  5. presbytism
  6. presbytress
  7. presbytresses
  8. prescale
  9. prescaled
  10. prescaler
  11. prescalers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: presbytress (page history and authors); presbyteress (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.

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