English edit

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Etymology edit

interpreter +‎ -ess

Noun edit

interpretess (plural interpretesses)

  1. (dated) A female interpreter.
    • 1724, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M--y W--y M--e[1]:
      However, I chose to go incognito, to avoid any disputes about ceremony, and went in a Turkish coach, only attended by my woman, that held up my train, and the Greek lady, who was my interpretess.
    • 1920, Edith Wharton, In Morocco[2]:
      They were all (our interpretess whispered) the Sultan's "favourites," round-faced apricot-tinted girls in their teens, with high cheek-bones, full red lips, surprised brown eyes between curved-up Asiatic lids, and little brown hands fluttering out like birds from their brocaded sleeves.

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