Votresses

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈvəʊtɹɪsɪz/

Definitions

1. Women who have dedicated their lives to religious or spiritual service, often living under vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience
2. Female devotees committed to a sacred or monastic way of life, pledging themselves to spiritual duties and abstaining from secular affairs
3. Women bound by solemn promises to a religious community, embracing devotion and renouncing worldly attachments for spiritual purposes

Etymology: "Votress" is a plural-inflected form of a noun meaning a female devotee, and its plural "votresses" is simply the regular plural of that noun. The noun is a shortened form of "votaress," a word built on "votary," a person bound by vows to a religious or devout life. The shortening, called syncope, dropped a vowel from the middle of the longer form, and the change seems to have followed the pattern of words like "enchantress," which also ends in "-ess" and marks a woman in the role named by the base word. The base of the chain is "voter," which is the root of "votary" and was once close to "one who vows" in sense. Adding the feminine suffix "-ess" produced "voteress," from which the shorter "votress" developed. Hence the English noun traces back to the idea of a person who has made a solemn vow, with the feminine ending marking the woman who takes such a pledge.

Synonyms: nuns, sisters, religious women

Antonyms: laywomen