The same is the case in the present Dutch of Holland: e.g., spookster=a female fortune-teller; bakster=a
baking-woman; waschster=a washerwoman. (Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, iii. p. 339.) The word spinster still retains its original feminine force.
6. The words songstress and seamstress, besides being, as far as concerns the intermixture of languages, in the predicament of shepherdess, have, moreover, a double feminine termination; 1st. -str, of Germanic, 2nd. -ess, of classical, origin.
7. In the word heroine we have a Greek termination, just as -ix is a Latin, and -inn a German one. It must not, however, be considered as derived from hero, by any process of the English language, but be dealt with as a separate importation from the Greek language.
8. The form deaconess is not wholly unexceptionable; since the termination -ess is of Latin, the root deacon of Greek origin: this Greek origin being rendered all the more conspicuous by the spelling, deacon (from diaconos), as compared with the Latin decanus.
9. The circumstance of prince ending in the sound of s, works a change in the accent of the word. As s is the final letter, it is necessary, in forming the plural number, and the genitive case, to add, not the simple letter s, as in peers, priests, &c., but the syllable -es. This makes the plural number and genitive case the same as the feminine form. Hence the feminine form is accented princéss, while peéress, príestess, &c., carry the accent on the first syllable. Princéss is remarkable as being the only word in English where the accent lies on the subordinate syllable.
10. It is uncertain whether kit, as compared with cat, be a feminine form or a diminutive form; in other words, whether it mean a female cat or a young cat.—See the Chapter on the Diminutives.
11. Goose, gander.—One peculiarity in this pair of words has already been indicated. In the older forms of the word goose, such as χὴν, Greek; anser, Latin; gans, German, as well as in the derived form gander, we have the proofs that, originally, there belonged to the word the sound of the letter n. In the forms ὀδοὺς, ὀδόντος, Greek; dens, dentis, Latin; zahn,
German; tooth, English, we find the analogy that accounts for the ejection of the n, and the lengthening of the vowel preceding. With respect, however, to the d in gander, it is not easy to say whether it is inserted in one word or omitted in the other. Neither can we give the precise power of the -er. The following forms (taken from Grimm, iii. p. 341) occur in the different Gothic dialects. Gans, fem.; ganazzo, masc., Old High German—gôs, f.; gandra, m., Anglo-Saxon—gâs, Icelandic, f.; gaas, Danish, f.; gassi, Icelandic, m.; gasse, Danish, m.—ganser, ganserer, gansart, gänserich, gander, masculine forms in different New German dialects.
12. Observe, the form gänserich has a masculine termination. The word täuberich, in provincial New German, has the same form and the same power. It denotes a male dove; taube, in German, signifying a dove. In gänserich and täuberich, we find preserved the termination -rich (or -rik), with a masculine power. Of this termination we have a remnant, in English, preserved in the curious word drake. To duck the word drake has no etymological relation whatsoever. It is derived from a word with which it has but one letter in common; viz. the Latin anas=a duck. Of this the root is anat-, as seen in the genitive case anatis. In Old High German we find the form anetrekho=a drake; in provincial New High German there is enterich and äntrecht, from whence come the English and Low German form drake. (Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, iii. p. 341.)