Dictionary

spellmistress en · NOUN

Etymology

From spell + mistress.

Meanings

1. A female expert or consummate spellcaster.
   • A dryad could carry only one spell and it was entirely at the whim of the spellmistress as to which of the ten or so spells at her command she used. 2007, Leslie Brown, “Dryad in the Mast”, in W. H. Horner, editor, Sails & Sorcery: Tales of Nautical Fantasy, Wilmington, Del.: Fantasist Enterprises, →ISBN, page 210:
   • Kill an Aravu spellmistress. 2005, Eric Mylonas, EverQuest II: Desert of Flames, Prima Official Game Guide, Prima Games, →ISBN, page 106, column 2:
   • ‘[…] I tell you, we were about to be cursed as dark-arts-men when we went abroad this morning, and people saw what happened to us. The God-man were bent on it. It were only Filip’s quick tongue that saved us. We were the victims of someone, he says, not practitioners ourselves. We are just helpless innocents, like someone slipped a potion to or something.’ I stopped trying to peel off the skins; it was making me ill again. ‘But who, though? Who would want to?’ ‘No one can guess. Some spellmistress as wants babbies of a Bear, is the conjecture. Others tried saying we had brought it on ourselves, wearing the skins past midnight.[…]’ 2008, Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels, London: Jonathan Cape, published 2009, →ISBN, page 268:
   • “Your spells aren’t as smooth or regular as the factory tablets,” the spellmistress continued. 2015, R. J. Anderson, A Pocket Full of Murder, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 92:
2. A woman in charge of running a spelling bee.
   • Seventeen students lined up before spellmistress Marline Stephenson Dalley at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in St Mary to get things going with the first word: A-B-I-L-I-T-Y. 2022 September 29, Kerry-Ann Hepburn, “Kyria wins St Mary title as Bee buzz returns”, in The Gleaner:
   • “Rampant,” boomed the spellmistress, dressed officiously in green. Elysia Dunford, 9, approached the microphone: R-A-M-..........P.....-I-N-T. “incorrect,” droned the grey-haired judge. 2000 April 2, Patricia Bailey, “‘Rampant’ stumps contestants: Annual spelling bee a grinding affair”, in Ottawa Citizen, page A11, column 1:
   • The 14th annual Ottawa county rural school Spelling Bee will be held in Miami April 7 under the sponsorship of County Supt. Fred Jimerson and the News-Record. […] Again this year, Miss Vesta Fisk of the Miami high school faculty will serve as spellmistress, Jimerson said. 1951 March 21, “Notes from Your Town”, in Miami Daily News-Record, 48th year, number 226, Miami, Okla., page one, column 1:

Forms

Coordinates

spellmaster