astronomeress

plural astronomeresses

1. rareA female astronomer.

   London, November 7, 1857. / Dear E., / […] In the evening, Miss Mitchell, our astronomeress was there, and we had a good chat about mutual friends, &c. She is here for a year or so. I hope to meet her again in Rome. […] / Yours, sincerely, / T. A. TEFFT.

   1857, Edwin Martin Stone, The Architect and Monetarian: A Brief Memoir of Thomas Alexander Tefft, Including His Labors in Europe to Establish a Universal Currency, Provindence Press Company, published 1869, pages 44, 46, 47

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   Positively, these Frenchwomen are wonderful creatures!—There are plenty of clever Englishwomen,—but they are to the manner born. The discreet damsels who write about Political Economy have been swaddled in foolscap and dieted from their youth upwards on printer’s ink; while the astronomeress of forty was made to play with baby-house orreries at four years old.

   1842, Catherine Gore, Cecil, a Peer, a Sequel to Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb, volume I, Philadelphia: Barrington and Haswell, page 63

   He proposed that all renowned women should be admitted to the franchise:—“Why should not Miss Caroline Herschell^([sic]) and Mrs. Somerville, the astronomeresses; the late Mrs Hannah More, Mrs. Fry, and Mrs. Barbauld; Lady Lovelace, the mathematicianess; Mr. Bloomer, Betty Martineau, and hundreds of others, have had the franchise—or any woman who possessed a 40s. freehold?

   1852 March, The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian

   Another exercrable innovation is the misuse of the termination ess. Years ago Thackeray protested against “authoress,” but it holds its ground among illiterate writers; and we have twice seen “manageress,” and “supperioress.”^([sic]) Last week the most frightful coinage in the World—“preacheress.” Where is this debasement of language to stop? If a woman who preaches is thus styled, surely a lady who drives is a driveress, and one who dreams is a dreameress, and so on to the end of the chapter. Was Caroline Herschel an astronomeress? These corruptions of our fine and flexible language ought to be resisted.

   1876, The Hartford Herald, volume 2, number 37, page 1, column 2

   […] taxed to its utmost to give even an approximate estimate of the number of young amateur astronomers and astronomeresses who are sitting up by twos these pleasant evenings to make sure that the brilliant stranger does not escape their observation, […]

   1881 June, Hartford Courant, page 2

   Synonyms: astronomess