Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
laundress en · NOUN
Etymology
Etymology tree
English launder
Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.
Proto-Italic *-āzios
Latin -āriusnom.
Latin -āriusbor.
Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz
Proto-West Germanic *-ārī
Old English -ere
Middle English -ere
English -er
English launderer
English ess
English laundress
From launderer + ess.
Meanings
-
Synonym of washerwoman.
I tell thee ſhameleſſe girle,
Thou ſhalt be Landreſſe to my waiting maide:
c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
Forms
Deriveds
underlaundress
Synonyms
washerwoman
laundress en · VERB
Etymology
Etymology tree
English launder
Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.
Proto-Italic *-āzios
Latin -āriusnom.
Latin -āriusbor.
Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz
Proto-West Germanic *-ārī
Old English -ere
Middle English -ere
English -er
English launderer
English ess
English laundress
From launderer + ess.
Meanings
-
(historical, obsolete) To act as a laundress.
‘Sir,’ said Mrs. Crupp, in a tone approaching to severity, ‘I’ve laundressed other young gentlemen besides yourself. […]’
1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 26, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:And oh, my dears, real washing is very different work from the dolls’ laundressing—standing round a wash-hand basin placed on a nursery chair, and wasting ever so much beautiful honey-soap in nice clean hot water […]
1875, Mary Louisa Molesworth, “Too Bad”, in Tell Me a Story, 5th edition, London: Macmillan, published 1882, page 169:2007, Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (Someone Knows My Name), New York: Norton, Book Three, p. 260,
Mama got herself free before she had me, and she was laundressing for the British since my early days.
Forms