tormentress
English
WOTD – 16 August 2015
Etymology
From Middle English turmenteresse; equivalent to tormentor + -ess.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tɔɹˈmɛn.tɹəs/
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
tormentress (plural tormentresses)
- A female tormentor.
- Synonym: tormentrix
- 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC:
- Fortune ordinarily cometh after to whip and punish them, as the scourge and tormentresse of glory and honour.
- 1996, Gordon Williams, Shakespeare, Sex and the Print Revolution:
- But if the victim Lavinia offers a prime example, her tormentress Tamora provides a no less striking model of another kind.
- 1836, The Meerut Universal Magazine, volume 2, page 390:
- "Tell me," I repeated, but, alas ! miserably out of tune. My confusion rapidly increased, when the fair tormentress, turning towards me, said, perhaps it is my fault — I am not playing correctly?"
Translations
a female tormentor
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