emperice

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /emˈpeː.ri.ke/, [ɛmˈpeːrɪkɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /emˈpe.ri.t͡ʃe/, [emˈpɛːrit͡ʃe]

empērice m

1. vocative singular of empēricus

• emparesse, emperes, emperesse, emperise, emperysse, empres, emprys, imparesse, imperes, imperice

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman empereiz, contraction of empereriz, from Latin imperatrix; equivalent to emperour +‎ -esse. Final -e is apparently by analogy with other feminine nouns, as the borrowing was early enough for the Middle English gender system to survive.

• IPA^(key): /ɛmpəˈriːs(ə)/, /ɛmpəˈrɛs(ə)/, /ˈɛmpəris(ə)/, /ˈɛmpərɛs(ə)/

emperice (plural emperesses)

1. An empress; a female ruler of an empire.
   • late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Franklin's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 1045-1048:

     ‘Your blisful suster, Lucina the shene,
     That of the see is chief goddesse and quene,
     Though Neptunus have deitee in the see,
     Yet emperesse aboven him is she:’ [...]

     ‘Your blissful sister, Lucina the bright,
     Who of the sea is chief goddess and queen,
     Though Neptune have godly dominion in the sea,
     Yet empress above him is she:’ [...]

2. The wife or partner of an empire's ruler.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

• English: empress
• Scots: empress

• “emperesse, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-24.
• “emperice”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

emperice oblique singular, f (oblique plural emperices, nominative singular emperice, nominative plural emperices)

1. Late Anglo-Norman form of empereriz