priestess

Etymology

It is formed from English priest + -ess.^[2][3][4][5] An earlier word was priestress, Middle English presteresse,^[3][2][6] which the OED derives from Middle French prestresse, later apparently re-formed in English.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A woman who holds the position of a priest: 1594, in J. Stockwood's translation of a commentary by L. Daneau.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has 1654,^[4] and Etymonline and Dictionary.com the 1690s.^[3][7] The older presteresse is recorded perhaps before 1439, in Lydgate's Fall of Princes, of a woman serving the rites of the old pagans.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The word was used above all of women serving pagan cults: Johnson (1755) defined it as a woman who officiated in heathen rites, quoting Addison, Swift and Pope,^[8] and the Shorter Oxford and Collins still limit it to non-Christian religions.^[5][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the OED define it more widely, as a female priest.^[4][2] An extended use, recorded from 1738 in Pope, gave the modern sense of a leading woman in a belief or movement.^[2][9] From 1709 to 1807 it was also a colloquial word for a clergyman's wife.^[2]

Timeline

• 1594 – a female priest.^[2]
• 1709 – a clergyman's wife (obsolete by 1807).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female priest, especially of a non-Christian religion: a priestess of the temple of Athena.^[9][4][5][2]
2. A leading woman in a belief or movement.^[9][2]

Word family

• high priestess

Related words

• priest
• priestress

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins