priestessn.
/priːˈstɛs/, /ˈpriːstᵻs/, U.S. /ˈpristəs/ 1.
a. A female priest; a woman who holds the position and performs the functions of a priest.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > priest > kinds of priest > [noun] > female priest
nuneOE
priestress?a1439
priestc1440
priestess1594
presbyteress1651
1594 J. Stockwood tr. L. Daneau Fruitfull Comm. Twelue Small Prophets Fore-notes vii. 26 One of Bacchus Bedlam women priestesses.
1656 S. Holland Don Zara del Fogo ii. vi. 118 The Divine Maulkina having been a vowed Votaress to Diana (whose Priestess she was, and whose Oracles she exhibited) upon a night as she sat at the feet of the Image of that chaste Deity [etc.].
1664 J. Dryden Rival Ladies (1926) I. Ep. Ded. 3 Like the priestess of Apollo, you never come to deliver his oracles, but unwillingly, and in torment.
1693 T. Creech tr. Juvenal in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires xiii. 268 He goes to Delphos; humbly begs advice; And thus the Priestess by Command replies.
1709 J. Johnson Clergy-man's Vade Mecum: Pt. II 99 Priestesses or women-presidents are not to be constituted in the church.
1757 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. II. 284 In the next room are the heads of Livia Augusta veiled, and a priestess of Cybele.
a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. iii. 385 The gifted priestess among the Quakers is known by her green apron.
1833 Times 28 May 5/1 The laurus nobilis (daphne) grew about Rome, and was used in producing the inspirations of the prophetic priestesses.
1884 S. St. John Hayti v. 184 He [sc. Salnave]..made considerable presents to the [Vaudoux] priests and priestesses.
1923 D. A. Mackenzie Myths China & Japan v. 59 For this service she was given the power to foretell future events. She became a sybil—a priestess.
1979 Spectator 20 Oct. 7/3 Numerous Catholic and non-Catholic women were offended by what he had to say on birth control, abortion, divorce and the ordination of priestesses in the Roman Church.
1998 M. Reaves Voodoo Child (1999) xxx. 235 New Orleans..a city whose people had once attempted to oust street dealers in the Bywater District by hiring a voodoo priestess.
b. In extended use.
ΚΠ
1738 A. Pope One Thousand Seven Hundred & Thirty Eight Dialogue II 15 Her Priestess Muse, forbids the Good to dye, And ope's the Temple of Eternity.
1811 L.-M. Hawkins Countess & Gertrude I. vi. 101 If mistresses of families will make their own passions their idols, they can seldom hope for virtuous priestesses to serve the altar.
1817 Lady Morgan France (1818) I. i. 48 Pretty bouquets are tossed into the carriage windows..while the little priestesses of Flora offer their gratuitous prayer of ‘bon voyage’.
1850 Ld. Tennyson In Memoriam iii. 3 O sorrow, cruel fellowship! O Priestess in the vaults of Death! View more context for this quotation
1919 Times 10 Oct. 13/3 That ever-changing priestess of the hearth, whose merit, in her own eyes, depended upon the number of tons of coal she could offer up during her short tenure of office.
1983 Listener 13 Oct. 16/1 Some people come to see, some to be seen, and others to seek their fortunes; for many priestesses of Venus are abroad, all on the lookout for adventures.
1991 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Apr. 120/1 Celebrated hostess..and priestess of sexual liberation, Mabel Dodge.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > priest > [noun] > priest's wife
presbyteress1546
priestess1709
1709 D. Manley Secret Mem. 158 The Priestess flounced out of the House, call'd for her Coachman, and bid him put in his Horses, for away would she go.
1779 Ann. Reg. 1778 207/2 The Jew priest of the Hamburgh Synagogue, in Fenchurch-Street, was divorced from his priestess.
1807 ‘P. Plymley’ Two Lett. on Catholics ii. 29 A feeling, laughable in a priestess, pudendous in a priest.
Compounds
Appositive.
priestess-queen n. [after priest-king]
ΚΠ
1848 D. Greenwell Poems 95 Bright priestess-queen of song.
1920 H. G. Wells Outl. Hist. iii. xix. 114/1 The Sumerians allowed much more freedom and authority to women than the Semites. They had priestess-queens, and one of their great divinities was a goddess, Ishtar.
1996 Hispanic Outlook Higher Educ. (Nexis) 20 Dec. 9 Tancred..finds himself, together with a dashing Christian Lebanese prince, a beautiful Jewish-Bedouin maiden, and an alluring pagan priestessqueen.
Derivatives
ˈpriestesshood n. the office of a priestess; a system of priestesses.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > priest > kinds of priest > [noun] > female priest > system of
priestesshood1841
1841 C. E. Lester Glory & Shame Eng. II. 139 When one of the six..happens to die, the remaining five fill up the void; and thus the priesthood, or, rather, priestesshood, lives on in a sort of corporate immortality.
1887 H. R. Haweis Light of Ages v. 145 The priesthood and priestesshood were as perfectly organised.
1999 S. Sered Women of Sacred Groves v. 216 There is no existential link between womanhood and priestesshood and that any association that seems to be there is a function of what men and women do in specific contexts.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1594