princesse

See also: prîncêsse

English

Etymology 1

From French princesse.

Adjective

princesse (not comparable)

1. (fashion) Being or relating to a princesse dress.
   • 2019, Kristina Seleshanko, Edwardian Fashions, page 42:

     The princesse style still reigns supreme, but the modified Empire fashions are already exciting interest, and will unquestionably reign supreme six months from now.

Etymology 2

From Middle English; see princess.

Noun

princesse (plural princesses)

1. Archaic spelling of princess.
   • 1602 (first performance), Thomas Dickers [i.e., Thomas Dekker], Iohn Webster [i.e., John Webster], The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyat. […], London: […] E[dward] A[llde] for Thomas Archer, […], published 1607, →OCLC; reprinted as John S. Farmer, editor, The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyat (The Tudor Facsimile Texts; 22), [Amersham, Buckinghamshire: s.n.], 1914, →OCLC, signature [A4], recto:

     Thus like a Nun, not like a Princeſſe borne, / Deſcended from the Royall Henries loynes: / Liue I inuironed in a houſe of ſtone, […]

   • 1628, Phineas Fletcher (falsely attributed to Edmund Spenser), Brittain’s Ida. Written by that Renowned Poët, Edmond Spencer, London: Printed [by Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Walkley, […], →OCLC; republished in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Poems of Phineas Fletcher, B.D., Rector of Hilgay, Norfolk: […] In Four Volumes (The Fuller Worthies’ Library), volume I, [s.l.]: Printed for private circulation, 1869, →OCLC, canto IV, stanza 8, page 72:

     But gently could his passion entertaine, / Though she Love's princesse, he a lowly swaine.

   • 1642, Thomas Fuller, “The Embassadour”, in The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC, book IV, paragraph 1, page 319:

     Lewis the eleventh King of France is ſufficiently condemn’d by Poſterity for ſending Oliver his Barber in an Embaſſage to a Princeſſe, who ſo trimly diſpatch’d his buſineſſe, that he left it in the ſuddes, and had been well waſh’d in the river at Gant for his pains, if his feet had not been the more nimble.

French

Etymology

From prince +‎ -esse (“-ess”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɛ̃.sɛs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs

• audio

  (file)

Noun

princesse f (plural princesses, masculine prince)

1. princess

Derived terms

• aux frais de la princesse

Related terms

• prince

Descendants

• → Catalan: princesa
• → Danish: prinsesse
  • Faroese: prinsessa
  • Icelandic: prinsessa
• → Ottoman Turkish: پرَنْسَس (prenses)
  • Turkish: prenses
• → Persian: پرَنسِس (peranses)
• → Portuguese: princesa
• → Spanish: princesa
• → Swedish: prinsessa
  • → Finnish: prinsessa

Further reading

• “princesse”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old French

Alternative forms

• princess (Anglo-Norman)

Noun

princesse oblique singular, f (oblique plural princesses, nominative singular princesse, nominative plural princesses)

1. princess

Descendants

• → English: princess
• French: princesse

References

• princess on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub