| 词组 | -ess |
| 释义 | -ess In 1855 Archbishop Richard Chevenix Trench, in English Past and Present, devoted a chapter to English words that were disappearing from use. One class of words he found greatly diminished in 19th-century English was feminine nouns—most of them designating occupations—ending in -ess. From the literature of the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries he brought forth such interesting specimens as teacheress, sinneress, neighbouress, herdess, constabless, ministress, flatteress, saintess, soldieress, impostress, and builderess. According to H. L. Mencken (The American Language, Supplement I, 1945), a copy of Trench's book found its way into the hands of a writer for Godey's Lady's Book in 1865. In the period around the Civil War, American women had begun their movement for civil rights, for the vote, and for a more active role in public life generally. The "fair authoress" (Mencken's term) in Godey's made a stirring plea for the revival and establishment of many of these terms; it was her belief, apparently, that the regular use of these terms would add dignity to the women whose professions or occupations they described. She set forth one list of twenty-five occupational or professional titles and another of thirty-three more general titles which had, or for which she proposed, -ess equivalents (the lists are in Mencken). Many of the words on these lists had been in general use all along—empress, duchess, princess, lioness, abbess, goddess, waitress, prioress, and so forth—and had never been the subject of much discussion—indeed, most of these are impeccable today. But others of them, including such established words as authoress and poetess, ran afoul of the male establishment. They were derogated by the intellectually elite as ugly, pedantic, and unnecessary. At the other end of the spectrum, 19th-century American humorists like Artemus Ward and Petroleum V. Nasby used such terms as beastess, champi-oness, and prestidigitateuress to satirize the serious use by women and of women of some of the terms the Godey's writer had recommended. Mamie Meredith has an interesting survey of such use in American Speech (August 1930). By the time we get to the 20th century, we find women turning against many of these terms too; the words are held to be demeaning in that they inject the consideration of sex where it is unnecessary. This argument had already been one of many put forth by 19th-century male critics of poetess and authoress. Most recent feminist opinion also opposes such forms. Wilson 1987 notes with wry amusement that it is almost always the masculine term (actor, priest, shepherd) that feminists want to have as the standard generic noun (but the same is not true for pronouns—see epicene pronouns). These feminine forms have not lacked defenders. A couple of the more surprising ones are Richard Grant White 1870 and Fowler 1926. White noted that many critics condemned such words as poetess and authoress, but he had run across words of that kind in some of the old authors that Archbishop Trench was writing about, and he thought the words deserved a place in the language. Fowler thought that -ess words (and other feminine forms) were useful, and he thought there should be more of them. Interestingly, some of the less successful -ess words that Fowler champions can be found on the 1865 list in Godey's Lady's Book. So far we have seen that -ess forms have been urged by women and condemned by women, and condemned by men and defended by men. A mixed bag of opinions, at least through the period of Fowler. Is modern opinion clearer? Yes and no. Though -ess forms would find few proponents among feminists today, the commentators—mostly men, of course—present less than a clear picture. For instance, Shaw 1975, 1987 says that Negress and Jewess were considered offensive long before the Women's Liberation movement; Simon 1980 says that these words are not pejorative. Kilpatrick 1984 advises a man married to a sculptor not to call her a sculptress; Simon thinks sculptress is not a pejorative term. In this book the four -ess words most frequently mentioned by usage commentators—authoress, poetess, Jewess, Negress—are accorded individual treatment. We cannot give you any easy advice about -ess words in general. Not enough research has yet been done to tell us if the forms Trench thought were dying out were actually in everyday use, to tell us if there was a revival of -ess forms during the 19th century in England as well as in the United States, or to tell us what attitudes such a revival in England might reveal. And modern use, though much written about, has perhaps not been dispassionately recorded. We can offer only a few indications. There seem to have been at least a few people in 19th century England who found some -ess forms polite: • Mr. Lewis Carroll has much pleasure in giving to the editresses of the proposed magazine permission to use ... —Lewis Carroll, letter, 6 Feb. 1888 And some found them rather humorous: • How do you like the Mandarinesses? Are you on some little footing with any of them? —Charles Lamb, letter, 29 Mar. 1809 • Now enough of political economy, which I inflict on you only to educate you as a manageress —George Bernard Shaw, letter, 3 Oct. 1899 And at least a few modern writers have found the virtue noted by Fowler of packing two kinds of information in a single word useful: • As Bech talked, and his translatress feverishly scribbled notes upon his complicated gist —John Updike, Bech Is Back, 1982 • ... immediately my young love becomes a young giantess looking down at me —E. L. Doctorow, Loon Lake, 1979 • ... where he had learned to do the high-life (his instructress's waist like a live, slow snake in his hands) —John Updike, Bech Is Back, 1982 One would probably do well to approach these words in a somewhat gingerly manner. Some are unmistakably out of favor now. Others, however, such as the traditional titles of female nobility, go their merry way. Even those of humbler station often continue in frequent use. Waitress shows no real sign, at this point, of being permanently displaced by the genderless neologisms wait-person and waitron; indeed, waitress has even become more common in print as an informal verb over the last 20 years or so. And the word manageress, which Shaw seems to have used humorously, continues in frequent and serious use in British English, our evidence suggests. Clearly this portion of our vocabulary is still evolving. |
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