fornicatress

English

Etymology

Compare French fornicatrice, (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin fornicatrix.

Noun

fornicatress (plural fornicatresses)

1. (obsolete) A woman guilty of fornication.
   • 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, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:
     : Scene 2: 778

     See you the fornicatress be removed: Let have needful, but not lavish, means; There shall be order for't.

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

     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.

   • 1936: Like the Phoenix by Anthony Bertram

     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.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Qu’ran 24:2, M.H. Shakir translation.

     (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.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “fornicatress”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)