bishopessn.
/bɪʃəˈpɛs/, /ˈbɪʃəpᵻs/, U.S. /ˈbɪʃəpəs/ 1. The wife of a bishop. (Only a nonce-word.)
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > wife of one in specific occupation > specific
doctoress1622
generaless1646
tradeswomana1652
bishopess1699
doctress1748
vicaress1770
parsoness1784
farm wife1831
farmeress1833
old Dutcha1889
rebbetzin1892
owneress1923
faculty wife1962
1699 T. Comber Disc. Consecrating 211 The Councils of that Age call their Wives by the name of (Episcopa) the Bishopess.
1748 M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. (1861) II. 489 We..found the bishop and his bishopess very well.
1885 Q. Rev. July 184 (note) Sophia did not take the title of Bishopess or even Princess of Osnabruck.
2. A female- or she-bishop. (Here used jestingly.)
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > bishop > kinds of bishop > [noun] > female bishop
bishopess1853
1853 W. M. Thackeray Newcomes (1854) I. iii. 30 I enclose you a rude scrap representing the bishopess of Clapham.
1880 Macmillan's Mag. Dec. 149 Can you conceive such a thing as the notion of a bishopess?
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1887; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1699