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mistress

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Mistress

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English maistresse, from Old French maistresse (whence French maîtresse), feminine of maistre (“master”). By surface analysis, mist(e)r +‎ -ess.

Pronunciation

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  • enPR: mĭsʹtrĭs, IPA(key): /ˈmɪstɹɪs/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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mistress (plural mistresses)

  1. A woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership.
    Synonyms: (applicable to either sex) boss, (applicable to either sex) head, (applicable to either sex) leader
    male equivalent: master
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      At the far end of the houses the head gardener stood waiting for his mistress, and he gave her strips of bass to tie up her nosegay. This she did slowly and laboriously, with knuckly old fingers that shook.
    She was the mistress of the estate-mansion, and owned the horses.
  2. A female teacher.
    Synonym: schoolmarm
    male equivalent: master
    games mistress
  3. The other woman in an extramarital relationship, generally including sexual relations.
    Synonyms: (applicable to either sex) bit on the side, fancy woman, comaré, goomah; see also Thesaurus:mistress
    Antonyms: cicisbeo, fancy man
  4. A dominatrix.
    male equivalent: master
    • 2006, Amelia May Kingston, The Triumph of Hope, page 376:
      As part of BDSM play they can enhance the domineering tread of a mistress or hobble the steps of a slave.
  5. A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it.
  6. a woman regarded with love and devotion; a sweetheart.
  7. (Scotland) A married woman; a wife.
  8. (obsolete) The jack in the game of bowls.
    • c. 1613, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, “Wit at Several Weapons. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
      Faith, keep a bachelor still, and go to bowls, sir, Follow your mistress there, and prick and save, sir; For other mistresses will make you a slave, sir
    • 2001, Paul Hemenway Altrocchi, Most Greatly Lived:
      She took a bowl, drew up her skirt with her left hand, and rolled the weighted ball with a deft motion. It lightly kissed the mistress and stopped a few inches away.
  9. A female companion to a master (a man with control, authority or ownership).
  10. female equivalent of master
  11. female equivalent of mister

Usage notes

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In the extramarital sense, mistress is often narrowly taken to mean a woman involved in a committed extramarital relationship (an affair), often supported financially (a kept woman). It can also be taken to mean broadly a woman involved in an extramarital relationship regardless of the level of commitment, but requires more than a single act of adultery.[1]

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Japanese: ミストレス (misutoresu)

Translations

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Verb

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mistress (third-person singular simple present mistresses, present participle mistressing, simple past and past participle mistressed)

  1. (transitive, rare) Of a woman: to master; to learn or develop to a high degree of proficiency.
    • 2013, Andrea Khalil, North African Cinema in a Global Context: Through the Lens of Diaspora:
      These films give a glimpse of women on the way to mistressing their own destiny.
  2. (intransitive) To act or take the role of a mistress.
    • 1905, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, Maid Margaret of Galloway:
      […] housewifery, maternity, charity, the life conventual, the chatter of a court, the mistressing of a great house […]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Tiger Woods Does Not Have 11 “Mistresses”: His many paramours aren’t committed enough to merit that term. by Jesse Sheidlower, Slate.com, Dec. 10, 2009.
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