Etymologically
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empress

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɛmpɹəs/[1]

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]

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