English edit

Etymology edit

From elf +‎ -ess.

Noun edit

elfess (plural elfesses)

  1. A female elf.
    • 1877, L. B., chapter XII, in From Sunrise to Sunset, London: R. Washbourne, page 261:
      Her case was heard, but no sentence pronounced; for each elf was dying of anxiety to claim her as his elfess.
    • 1914 August 8, “A Story For Boys and Girls”, in Twin City Daily Sentinel, Winston-Salem, N.C., page 9:
      They were not mermaids, but almost like them. These water elfesses wore skirts of seaweed woven so that it looked like beautiful green cloth, and this covered their bodies, so that when they came ut[sic] of the water and sat on the shore their bodies did not show and no one saw they were like mermaids.
    • 1984, Piers Anthony, Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn, Del Rey Books, →ISBN, page 92:
      “What prophecy?” I asked, somewhat aggrieved because I remembered the one made by the old elfess that I was to be doomed by a cruel lie.
    • 2012 April, Alexey Pehov, translated by Andrew Bromfield, Shadow Blizzard, New York, N.Y.: Tor, →ISBN, page 247:
      “No! I mean their fathers were men, and their mothers were elfesses!”

Synonyms edit