Dictionary

produceress en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *pér Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *pró Proto-Indo-European *pro- Proto-Italic *pro- Latin prō- Proto-Indo-European *dewk- Proto-Indo-European *déwkti Proto-Italic *doukō Latin dūcō Latin prōdūcōder. Middle English produce English produce 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 producer Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂der. Ancient Greek -ῐᾰ (-ĭă) Ancient Greek -ισσα (-issa)bor. Late Latin -issader. Old French -essebor. Middle English -esse English -ess English produceress From producer + -ess.

Meanings

1. (rare) A female producer.
   • Nora Bayes will enter the ranks of the produceresses tonight, when she will give a song recital at the Eltinge. 1916 December 24, “Listen to Nora Bayes”, in The New York Times, volume LXVI, number 21,519, New York, N.Y., section 2, page 5, column 3:
   • I’M SURE THAT women film producers are hard to find; especially “produceresses” of the caliber of Dona Holloway, who co-produces Universal Studios thriller-chillers with William Castle—things like “Strait-Jacket,” etc. 1965 February 10, Henry S. Humphreys, “Soprano, And ‘Produceress’”, in The Cincinnati Enquirer, 124th year, number 307, Cincinnati, Oh., page 18, column 2:
   • 1. In the sixteenth century stormed a monk on the pulpit against the languages, and said quite unembarrassed: 2. “There is (has) a new language invented become (been), this is called the Greek; before this guard yourselves! she is the produceress of all heresies.[…]” 1833, Adolphus Bernays, “The New Languages”, in The German Reader, a Selection from the Most Popular Writers, […], London: Treuttel, Wurtz and Richter, […], page 92:
   • 8. A beautiful, seductive boy whose narcissism and instinctive cunning hide the fact that he has no mind (and in fact, hardly any sentient consciousness) drives a succession of successful actresses, movie produceresses, cowgirls, and film directresses wild with desire. They rape him. / Authors do not make their plots up out of thin air, nor are the above pure inventions: every one of them is a story familiar to all of us. What makes them look so odd—and so funny—is that in each case the sex of the protagonist has been changed (and correspondingly the sex of the other characters). 1972, Joanna Russ, “What Can a Heroine Do? Or Why Women Can’t Write”, in Susan Koppelman Cornillon, editor, Images of Women in Fiction: Feminist Perspectives, Bowling Green, Oh.: Bowling Green University Popular Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 4:
   • Maybe he was nominated that way by the film’s producer. Or produceress. 1999 January 10, Mike Downey, “OK If I Run for Male Columnist of the Year?”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif., page A2, column 6:

Forms

Synonyms

productrix · productress