fornicatress

English

Etymology

Compare French fornicatrice, Latin fornicatrix.

Noun

fornicatress (plural fornicatresses)

1. (obsolete) A female fornicator; a fornicatrix.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 67, column 1:

     Well: let her be admitted, / See you the Fornicatreſſe be remou’d, / Let her haue needfull, but not lauiſh, meanes, / There ſhall be order for't.

   • 1853, John Kaye, Some Account of the Writings and Opinions of Justin Martyr:

     Joshua, the High-Priest, who, according to Justin, is said to have been clothed in filthy garments, because he had married a fornicatress

   • 1856: Meditations and prayers to the Holy Trinity and our Lord Jesus Christ by S. Anselm, Sometimes Archbishop of Canterbury

     For thou, thou, my wretched soul, perverse harlot, shameless fornicatress, thou first castedst off God, thy Lover and thy Creator, and betookest thyself of thine own accord to the devil, thine ensnarer and destroyer.

   • 1917, Maulana Muhammad Ali (translator), Qu’ran 24:2

     (As for) the fornicatress and the fornicator, flog each of them, (giving) a hundred stripes, and let not pity for them detain you in the matter of obedience to Allah, if you believe in Allah and the last day, and let a party of believers witness their chastisement.

   • 1936, Anthony Bertram, Like the Phoenix:

     However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie--did actually solicit me, did actually say 'coming home to-night, dearie' and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman.

References

• “fornicatress”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.