empress

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English emperice,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman emperice, also emprice and empereis,^[5] from Latin imperātrīx,^[5][6][4] the feminine of imperātor (“emperor”).^[6][4] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the mid 12th century,^[5] and the Old French empereriz from the 12th century.^[5][7] The later emperesse, from about 1300,^[3] follows emperesse,^{[2][8][9][10]} which the OED explains as a Middle French alteration of empereis with the suffix -esse (see -ess),^[5] and which Hoad and the ODE take as the feminine of emperere (“emperor”).^[2][10] The shortened empres appears before 1475.^[3] The Latin word also gave Old Occitan emperairitz, Spanish emperatriz, Portuguese imperatriz and Italian imperatrice.^[5] Weekley notes that in French emperesse was replaced by impératrice, and that empress is recorded in English earlier than emperor.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The wife or consort of an emperor: 1140 according to Barnhart,^[3] and probably before 1160 in the Peterborough continuation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle according to the OED.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was a title, often with the.^[5] By the 14th century it could mean a woman with supreme power comparable to an empress's, especially the Virgin Mary as Empress of Heaven,^[5] and Trevisa's translation of Higden (before 1387) has it for a woman who rules as emperor in her own right.^[5] Chaucer's Boece already uses it figuratively for the finest or ruling thing of its kind.^[5] Johnson (1755) gave "the queen of an emperour" and "a female sovereign", quoting Milton's "Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve".^[12] In 1876 Parliament gave Queen Victoria the title Empress of India.^[13][9]

Timeline

• 1140 – emperice, an emperor's wife.^[3]
• probably before 1160 – the wife or consort of an emperor.^[5]
• c. 1300 – the form emperesse.^[3]
• c. 1350 – a woman with supreme power; the Virgin Mary.^[5]
• before 1387 – a woman who rules an empire in her own right.^[5]
• c. 1400 – figuratively, the finest thing of its kind.^[5]
• before 1475 – the form empres.^[3]
• 1876 – Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India.^[13][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The wife or widow of an emperor.^[6][9][5]
2. A woman who rules an empire or holds an imperial title in her own right: Maria Theresa was a powerful empress.^[6][9][4]
3. A woman of great power or influence.^[6][5]
4. Something regarded as the finest or most powerful of its kind.^[5]

Related words

• emperor
• empire
• imperial
• imperatrix
• -ess

Usage notes

A separate verb empress, to press or impress, borrowed from empresser, was used from about 1400 to the early 19th century and is now obsolete.^[5][14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press