giantess
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English geauntesse, geaunesse, from Old French; equivalent to giant + -ess.
Pronunciation edit
- (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒaɪəntɛs/
Noun edit
giantess (plural giantesses)
- (fantasy, mythology) A female giant.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- He spide far off a mighty Giauntesse / Fast flying, on a Courser dapled gray […]
- 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 218:
- In the corner lay against the wall a stringed instrument not unlike a dulcimer, which, as people believe, the Giantesses used to play on.
- 1926, Enid Blyton, The Book of Brownies:
- The giantess picked him up and gave him such a squeeze that he felt he was going to choke.
- 1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 72:
- The giantesses lift arms like the trunks of sycamores, each finger tipped with an amaranthine talon.
Translations edit
female giant
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