Conqueress

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A woman who gains victory against opponents in warfare or competition
2. An empowered female who asserts control in conflicts or contests
3. A woman who triumphs over adversaries in battle or contest

Etymology: "Conqueress" is a plain formation: the verb "conquer" with the feminine suffix "-ess", which English took from Old French and attached to many agent nouns to mark a female doer. The earlier Middle English forms "conqueresse," "conquiris," and "conquires" show the spelling settling over time, and the word probably came into English from Old French, where a feminine form of the agent noun for "conqueror" would have been the model. The word's history is fairly modest, so the interest lies mostly in the suffix. Words like "conqueress," "governess," and "sorceress" all carry the same ending, and many of them later lost their feminine sense in general use. "Conqueress" has stayed a rare, literary choice, used when a writer wants to name a woman as the one who won.

Synonyms: female conqueror, victress