English edit

Etymology edit

From producer +‎ -ess.

Noun edit

produceress (plural produceresses)

  1. (rare) A female producer.
    • 1833, Adolphus Bernays, “The New Languages”, in The German Reader, a Selection from the Most Popular Writers, [], London: Treuttel, Wurtz and Richter, [], page 92:
      1. In the sixteenth century stormed a monk on the pulpit against the languages, and said quite unembarrassed: 2. “There is (has) a new language invented become (been), this is called the Greek; before this guard yourselves! she is the produceress of all heresies. []
    • 1916 December 24, “Listen to Nora Bayes”, in The New York Times, volume LXVI, number 21,519, New York, N.Y., section 2, page 5, column 3:
      Nora Bayes will enter the ranks of the produceresses tonight, when she will give a song recital at the Eltinge.
    • 1965 February 10, Henry S. Humphreys, “Soprano, And ‘Produceress’”, in The Cincinnati Enquirer, 124th year, number 307, Cincinnati, Oh., page 18, column 2:
      I’M SURE THAT women film producers are hard to find; especially “produceresses” of the caliber of Dona Holloway, who co-produces Universal Studios thriller-chillers with William Castle—things like “Strait-Jacket,” etc.
    • 1972, Joanna Russ, “What Can a Heroine Do? Or Why Women Can’t Write”, in Susan Koppelman Cornillon, editor, Images of Women in Fiction: Feminist Perspectives, Bowling Green, Oh.: Bowling Green University Popular Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 4:
      8. A beautiful, seductive boy whose narcissism and instinctive cunning hide the fact that he has no mind (and in fact, hardly any sentient consciousness) drives a succession of successful actresses, movie produceresses, cowgirls, and film directresses wild with desire. They rape him. / Authors do not make their plots up out of thin air, nor are the above pure inventions: every one of them is a story familiar to all of us. What makes them look so odd—and so funny—is that in each case the sex of the protagonist has been changed (and correspondingly the sex of the other characters).
    • 1999 January 10, Mike Downey, “OK If I Run for Male Columnist of the Year?”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif., page A2, column 6:
      Maybe he was nominated that way by the film’s producer. Or produceress.

Synonyms edit