- abbot—abbess
- negro—negress
- murderer—murderess
- sorcerer—sorceress
Vowel dropped before adding -ess.
The feminine may discard a vowel which appears in the masculine; as in—
- actor—actress
- master—mistress
- benefactor—benefactress
- emperor—empress
- tiger—tigress
- enchanter—enchantress
Empress has been cut down from emperice (twelfth century) and emperesse (thirteenth century), from Latin imperatricem.
Master and mistress were in Middle English maister—maistresse, from the Old French maistre—maistresse.
31. When the older -en and -ster went out of use as the distinctive mark of the feminine, the ending -ess, from the French -esse, sprang into a popularity much greater than at present.
Ending -ess less used now than formerly.
Instead of saying doctress, fosteress, wagoness, as was said in the sixteenth century, or servauntesse, teacheresse, neighboresse, frendesse, as in the fourteenth century, we have dispensed with the ending in many cases, and either use a prefix word or leave the masculine to do work for the feminine also.
Thus, we say doctor (masculine and feminine) or woman doctor, teacher or lady teacher, neighbor (masculine and feminine), etc. We frequently use such words as author, editor, chairman, to represent persons of either sex.