Dictionary

aristocratess en · NOUN

Etymology

From aristocrat + -ess.

Meanings

1. (rare) A female aristocrat.
   • Love? O yes, there had been an affair, but he had resolutely put it from him. Rose Lewis, a daughter of the old regime, an aristocratess of the aristocrats, yet sweet, gentle, clinging—ah! that had been hard! 1920 February, John Cline, “The Gleam”, in The Trinity Archive, volume XXXII, number 4, Trinity College, Durham, N.C., page 245:
   • Mrs. McKenzie the runaway aristocratess of Montreal, goes home, to get a divorce and marry her dear Fredrick[…] 1876 February 4, “News by Telegraph: Condensed Summary of Telegraphic Reports in the Daily Papers”, in The Emporia News, volume 19, number 5, Emporia, Kan., column 6:
   • There is first the would-be aristocratess stepping from her carriage, and carefully refraining from looking around her, dressed in the richest of silks, and the most delicate of laces:—showing in striking contrast with the man who rudely brushes past her, regardless of her pretty displeasure at such a want of proper respect. 1834, Henry F[othergill] Chorley, “The Streets.—No. I.—Characters.”, in Sketches of a Sea Port Town, volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], pages 4–5:
   • The Duchess of Doddlekins: “So pleased to see you and your husband and daughter too, Mrs. Boggins; and I do hope you’ll all join the Primrose League Cream, Mr. Boggins.” Mrs. Boggins: “Jes’ what I was a-tellin’ Boggins, yer Grace. Yaller allus did suit me. Brutus Boggins: “An’ yer can rely on me, yer Graciousness. It’s all werry well for them fellers at the Demos Club to talk about everybody bein’ ekal; I’m quite prepared to admit as I’m ekal to hennybody else, but arter bein’ waited on by an ’aughty aristocratess, I’m bust if I admit as hennybody else is ekal to me!” 1888 August 4, “[From “Fun.”] The Dame and the Democrat”, in The Wrexham Advertiser, and North Wales News, volume XL, Wrexham, page 2, column 3:
   • “Yes, come in only, and see what happens in the end to your lot, Aristocratess.” Mildly surprised, I replied to this aggressive Red, “Excuse me, I am an English journalist who would like to see everything possible⸺’ 1935, Berta Ruck, A Story-Teller Tells the Truth: Reminiscences & Notes, page 397:
   • We can, however, speak well of some of the papers—‘The Haunted Mind,’ and ‘Children, what are they?’ are both good of their kind—and Miss Leslie’s ‘Reading Parties,’ is a pleasant caricature;—if it be not a caricature, why there are haughtier aristocratesses in America than in the “Old Country,” for we never encountered anything half so insolent and absurd as the great lady of the village of Tamerton. 1834 October 25, The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, number 365, London: […] J. Francis, page 782, column 1:
   • It is a wise aristocratess that knows her own Keith. 1906, “Poor Richard’s Own”, in The Utonian, page Two Hundred Forty-seven:
   • The mildly sardonic original strands on a desert island a yachting party including a young British aristocratess and the family butler, whom the emergency brings out as a man to tie to. 1974, J[oseph] C[hamberlain] Furnas, Great Times: An Informal Social History of the United States, 1914-1929, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 418:

Forms