Carmelitess

English

Etymology

Carmelite +‎ -ess

Noun

Carmelitess (plural Carmelitesses)

1. (historical) A woman form Mount Carmel in Judah.
   • 1826, N. W. Oliver, Sephora: A Hebrew Tale:

     Mara was a Carmelitess, a daughter of Eliada, of the tribe of Judah.

   • 1847, William Rae Wilson, Travels in the Holy Land, page 60:

     An embassy took place here when David was united in marriage to a Carmelitess, who at a future period was, with other of her sex, taken captive in a war with the Amalekites.”

   • 1880, Bibliotheca Sacra - Volume 37, page 219:

     In the same Bible we have a character like Deborah, or like the fearless Jael, and we have the sweet simplicity of the daughterly affection and obedience of the Moabitess Ruth, the shrewd intelligence and womanly dignity of the Carmelitess Abigail, and the beautiful faith and fidelity of Hannah.

2. A Carmelite nun.
   • 1856, The Beleaguered Hearth, page 21:

     When she sang, it was with a similar effect for him; when she played, she seemed only to celebrate the perishableness, the nothingness, of the music, and the pleasure it gave rise to: and her dress, which was always handsome and gracefully disposed, seemed ever to be on the verge, like the first disguises of the Columbine in a pantomime, of changing into the attire of a Carmelitess or Poor Clare.

   • 1888, Alden's Manifold Cyclopedia of Knowledge and Language:

     The order of Carmelitesses, or Carmelite Nuns, was instituted 1452, and is very numerous in Italy.

   • 1901, Saint Thérèse (de Lisieux), The Little Flower of Jesus:

     Our Mistress of Novices was a true saint, the very type of a primitive Carmelitess.