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Ogress
Definitions
- 1 A female ogre.
"And in the seventh tale of the third day of the same collection, when Corvetto had hidden himself under the Ogre's bed to steal his quilt, "he began to pull quite gently, when the Ogre awoke, and bid his wife not to pull the clothes that way, or she'd strip him, and he would get his death of cold." "Why, it's you that are stripping me," replied the Ogress, "and you have not left a stitch on me." "Where the devil is the quilt?" says the Ogre[.]"
- 2 A roundel sable.
"Beareth Verte, fiue Fermaulxz in Crosse D'Or, a Border d'Argent, charged with eight Ogresses: or, after the French blazon, 'Ogressée de huit pieces'."
- 3 (folklore) a female ogre wordnet
- 4 A fierce, unfriendly woman.
"I remember being the fall guy for the family, having to take the rent down to the ogress of a landlady so that my parents wouldn't have to face her."
Etymology
Borrowed in the early 1700s from French ogresse, equivalent to ogre + -ess. Piecewise doublet of orcess.
Uncertain. Attested in this form since 1572. The French term ogoesse is only attested later (1611 in an English dictionary, 1690 in a French dictionary) and may be derived from English. The 1486 Book of Coat Armour in the Book of St. Albans says "gonestonys" are called "oglys" in heraldic blazon; perhaps someone in the 1500s misread ogles as ogres(s) and mistook the plural for a singular, compare the use of pommeis (“roundel(s) vert”) as a singular. The form agresses is found in some 18th century works, alongside ogresses.
See also for "ogress"
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