Masculine/Vowel/drop -Gender - Noun-Parts Of Speech-ESL/Learn English Grammar

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[Sidenote: _Masculine ending dropped.]



The masculine ending may be dropped before the feminine _-ess_ is
added; as,--

abbot--abbess
negro--negress
murderer--murderess
sorcerer--sorceress

[Sidenote: Vowel dropped before adding_ -ess.]

The feminine may discard a vowel which appears in the masculine; as
in--

actor--actress
master--mistress
benefactor--benefactress
emperor--empress
tiger--tigress
enchanter--enchantress

_Empress_ has been cut down from _emperice_ (twelfth century) and
_emperesse_ (thirteenth century), from Latin _imperatricem_.

_Master_ and _mistress_ were in Middle English
_maister_--_maistresse_, from the Old French _maistre_--_maistresse_.


31. When the older _-en_ and _-ster_ went out of use as the
distinctive mark of the feminine, the ending _-ess_, from the French
_-esse_, sprang into a popularity much greater than at present.

[Sidenote: Ending_ -ess _less used now than formerly.]

Instead of saying _doctress_, _fosteress_, _wagoness_, as was said in
the sixteenth century, or _servauntesse_, _teacheresse_,
_neighboresse_, _frendesse_, as in the fourteenth century, we have
dispensed with the ending in many cases, and either use a prefix word
or leave the masculine to do work for the feminine also.

Thus, we say _doctor_ (masculine and feminine) or _woman doctor_,
_teacher_ or _lady teacher_, _neighbor_ (masculine and feminine), etc.
We frequently use such words as _author_, _editor_, _chairman_, to
represent persons of either sex.

NOTE:-There is perhaps this distinction observed: when we speak of a
female _as an active agent_ merely, we use the masculine termination,
as, "George Eliot is the _author_ of 'Adam Bede;'" but when we speak
purposely _to denote a distinction from a male_, we use the feminine,
as, "George Eliot is an eminent _authoress_."





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