scribess

plural scribesses

1. datedA female scribe.

   The weary scribes and scribesses then sought blissful repose at the Wyoming Hotel, where they were the guests for three days, eating the best in the land, and sleeping as soundly as little children.

   1902 June 26, “Editorial Outing. Eighth District Scribes Visit the Coal Regions.”, in The Central News, volume XXII, number 1099, Perkasie, Pa., front page, column 1

   5 more examples

   We now have among the Scribes and Scribesses of the News a “Katie” and a “Katie-Did.” We confess to a tenderness for the name of Katie. It reminds us of the happy days of the not very distant past when we were fond of quoting to a certain Katie who now shares the joys and sorrows of Nosco these lines: “O tell me where did Katy live, / And what did Katy do? And was she very fair and young, / And yet so wicked too? Did Katy love a naughty man, / Or kiss more cheeks than one? I warrant Katy did no more / Than many a Kate has done.”

   1885 August 27, The Central News, volume V, number 221, Perkasie, Pa., page [2], column 4

   What can the erudite scribesses mean by “successful directors?” Certainly they were successful or else they would not receive the certificates of election. When their terms as directors cease you can safely say that they will still be successful.

   1887 February 27, “Points from Plains. A Correspondent Lets Loose on Another of the Guild. Hot Shots from a Bold Critic. A Sorry Attempt to Belittle the Work Of a Pedagogue–People Tired of News - Dealer Twaddle–Emmet’s Birthday.”, in Sunday Morning Leader, volume 2, number 15, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., page 8, column 3

   Miss Amy Castles, the Bendigo warbler, presented to Melb. audiences in loose hair and a rather short frock, was born at Capel-street, Melb., in July, 1880, says the register. This comes rather rough on the enthusiastic scribesses (including a Bulletin scribess) who put Miss Amy’s age down as 17, and gave her credit for looking two years younger, which she certainly doesn’t.

   1899 June 10, “The “Bulletin,” the “Freeman,” and Amy Castles”, in The Freeman’s Journal, volume L, number 3153, Sydney, N.S.W., section “The Evidence Against the “Bulletin.” Specimens Of “Pure Truth” and “Honest Record.””, subsection “Exhibit E.”, page 21, column 4

   As Mr. [Marion] Brown is a young man of uncertain age and quite a lover of the beautiful in the ladies, and as our scribesses were out in all the pomp and heraldry befitting their rank, and each one wearing her Sunday smile, Marion was as happy as a little dog with a pink ribbon tied to the end of his tail.

   1902 April 15, O. C. Sigworth, “Correspondent Sigworth Dreams of a Banquet: That Was Not Held in Marble Halls, but It Was “a Beaut,” Just the Same, Until He Awoke—A Very Readable Conceit”, in Franklin Evening News, 25th year, number 7,406, Franklin, Pa., page 1, column 5

   We might advantageously copy women-writers here. Woman, in the nature of things, must accumulate dirt, as we do; and she must now and then wash that dirt off, or it would be there still. (Like St. Paul, I speak as a man.) But the scribess never parades her ablutions on the printed page. If, for instance, you could prevail upon the whole galaxy of Australian authoresses and pen-women to attend a Northern Victoria Agricultural Show, in their literary capacity, you would see proof of this.

   1903, Tom Collins [pseudonym; Joseph Furphy], “Sat. Feb. 9. Runnymede. To Alf Jones’s.”, in Such Is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins, Sydney, N.S.W.: The Bulletin Newspaper Company, […], page 207