divineress

English

Etymology

From Middle English divyneresse, devyneresse, dyvyneresse, dyveneras, dyvenourese; equivalent to diviner +‎ -ess.

Noun

divineress (plural divineresses)

1. (archaic) A female diviner.
   • 1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     The mad Divineress had plainly writ,
     A time shou'd come (but many ages yet,)
     In which, sinister destinies ordain

   • 1894, Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, series 1‎^[1]:

     Altogether, with her snowy raiment and white flesh and passionless face, she seems rather a beautiful living statue than a Japanese maiden. And all the while the weird flutes sob and shrill, and the muttering of the drums is like an incantation. What I have seen is called the Dance of the Miko, the Divineress.

References

• “divineress”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.