dogess

English

Etymology 1

Noun

dogess (plural dogesses)

1. Alternative spelling of doggess (“female dog”)
   • 1785, [Francis Grose], “Bitch”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, London: […] S. Hooper, […]:

     Bitch, a ſhe dog, or dogeſs;

   • 1871, George Gordon Scott, “The “Mulberry-Tree Tavern” and Its Frequenters”, in Clumber Chase, or Love’s Riddle Solved by a Royal Sphinx. A Tale of the Restoration., volume I, London: T[homas] Cautley Newby, […], page 19:

     ‘Well, he is a tall, very dark gentleman; perhaps with a mallet in his hand, for he is fond of playing at pell mell; but you’ll know him chiefly by all the dogs and dogesses by which he is always surrounded.’

   • 1877 December 8, The Country: A Weekly Journal Devoted to the Dog, the Gun, Yachting, and All Out-Door Sports, volume I, number 7, New York, N.Y., page 82, column 2:

     I have heretofore expressed my dislike of dogs and dogesses, but to repeat that these creatures are an anachronism—an impertinent arrival, having about the same right of intrusion into our country as polygamy, serpent worship, and the Berserker madness—excellent institutions of their day and generation, but of no practical use in ours.

   • 1887 November, Joseph Fraser, “How to Read Men as Open Books”, in The Australian Journal: A Family Newspaper of Literature, Science, and the Arts, volume XXIII, part 270, Melbourne, Vic.: A. H. Massina & Co., […], published 1888, chapter I (A Study of Animal Forms), page 170, column 2:

     Look at that animated and lively young lady in conversation with your friend, Mr. Brown-Bear. Her name is Miss English-Terrier. She is one of the smooth-haired dogesses; has a high, round forehead; a quick, intelligent look; all her answers are ready.

   • 1920, C. N. Williamson, A. M. Williamson, The Dummy Hand: A Novel, London: Hutchinson & Co., […], page 9:

     The sea dogs and dogesses who braved all weathers had nosed out those labels, but had so far watched in vain for the chairs to be occupied.

   • 2002, Allen Cohen, Clive Matson, editors, An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11, Regent Press, →ISBN, page 300:

     He [David Ray] lives with his wife Judy and dogess Levi in Tucson, Arizona and travels widely giving readings and workshops.

Etymology 2

From doge +‎ -ess. Doublet of dogaressa and duchess.

Noun

dogess (plural dogesses)

1. Synonym of dogaressa (“wife of a doge”)
   • 1688, Animadversions on the Reflections upon Dr. B’s Travels, page 41:

     The Reflecter, without citing his Author for it, pretends, that no Dogeſs can be Crowned, and that the Inquiſitors made a Decree againſt it.

   • 1695, “Letter XXIII.”, in A New Voyage to Italy, with a Description of the Chief Towns, Churches, Tombs, Libraries, Palaces, Statues, and Antiquities of that Country. […], volume II, London: […] R. Bentley, […], translation of [Nouveau voyage d’Italie: avec un mémoire contenant des avis utiles à ceux qui voudront faire le mesme voyage] by Maximilian Misson, page 5:

     The Dogeſſes are excluded from having any ſhare in thoſe ſhadows of Honour which are paid to their Husbands, which is an Effect of the Frugality of the Government; and indeed, the Republick has no need of two Mock-Soveraigns.

   • 1714, “Letter XXXV.”, in A New Voyage to Italy. With Curious Observations on several Other Countries; […], the fourth edition, volume II, London: […] R[ebecca] Bonwicke, […], translation of [Nouveau voyage d’Italie: avec un mémoire contenant des avis utiles à ceux qui voudront faire le mesme voyage] by [Maximilien Misson], page 374:

     The Palace of the Republick, or the Publick Palace, call’d Palazzo Reale, is extreamly large. Here the Doge and Dogeſs lodge, and two or three Senators, with their Families, beſides ſome inferior Officers of the State.

   • 1737, “Letter XXV.”, in The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Being the Observations He made in his late Travels from Prussia thro’ […], volume I, London: […] Daniel Browne, […], translation of [Memoires du Baron de Pollnitz, contenant les Observations qu’il a faites dans ses Voyages] by Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz [i.e., Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz], page 405:

     In the Churches of St. Paul and St. John are Pictures very much eſteem’d by the Connoiſſeurs; and there’s the ſumptuous Tomb of the Valerios, where the Father, the Mother, with the Son, are carv’d in their natural Proportion in Marble, apparell’d in the Habit of the Doge and Dogeſs.

   • 1764, Edward Wright, “A General Alphabetical Index to Both Volumes”, in Some Observations Made in Travelling through France, Italy, &c. in the Years mdccxx, mdccxxi, and mdccxxii, the second edition, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], column 2:

     Doge, the revenues of his office rarely anſwer the expences of it, ib. / the ancient families not fond of accepting it, ib. / the concern of a dogeſs upon her huſband’s election, 95

   • 1809, David Hughson, “Circuit of London”, in London; Being an Accurate History and Description of the British Metropolis and Its Neighbourhood, to Thirty Miles Extent, from an actual Perambulation, volume VI, London: […] W. Stratford, […], for J. Stratford, […], section “East Saloon, next the Dome”, page 531:

     Procession of a Dogess of Venice, P[aolo]. Veronese;

   • 1846 June, Peter Schemil [pseudonym], “Lights and Shadows of Fashionable Life”, in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XXVII, number 6, New York, N.Y.: […] John Allen, […], page 487:

     Of the most active and efficient of these in our city, none can exceed my own especial and dear friend Mrs. Trippe, whose sagacity and satire can never be over-tasked in this labor of love, and whose zeal sometimes, finding itself unsupplied with the necessary victims to be broken on the wheel of the Virtuous Indignation Society, has often, with unsurpassed skill, managed to use up the several members constituting the venerable Council of Ten themselves, of whom Mrs. Van Dam has assumed the Dogess-ship;

   • 1871 October, George Augustus Sala, “From Russell-Square to Kensal-Green”, in Belgravia, a London Magazine, volume V (second series); XV (first series), London: Office: […], page 455:

     A dreadful country, full of stagnant lakes , and marshes steaming with miasmatic exhalations. No houses there; only hospitals. The government a medical oligarchy: Sangrado doge, a sage femme dogess, Thomas Diagoirus prime minister, Mrs. Gamp (pp. Lucina) mistress of the robes.

   • 1872 November, M[ary] E[lizabeth] W[ilson] S[herwood], “Venice”, in The Galaxy. A Magazine of Entertaining Reading., volume XIV, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Sheldon & Company, […], page 670, column 2:

     For the most beautiful description of the Lido, as well as of everything else Venetian, I recommend my reader to the best of travellers’ books, Mr. [William Dean] Howells’s “Venetian Life.” It was an added charm to the rare city to read this book in Venice; and were I a dogess of the fourteenth century, I would have a crystal casket enriched with gems made for my copy, and it should be locked with a mediæval gold key, such as Angelo wears and Rachel played with, in the tragedy which she introduced to us.

   • 1873 November, “Orco”, in L. W. J., transl., Lippincott’s Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, volume XII, Philadelphia, Pa.: J. B. Lippincott and Co., translation of L’Orco by George Sand, page 565, column 1:

     Franz recognized her immediately. It was the young girl of the picture, dressed like a dogess of the fifteenth century, and rendered still more beautiful by the magnificence of her costume.

   • 1885, “The Doge and Dogess”, in J. T. Bealby, transl., Weird Tales, volume II, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, translation of original by E. T. W. Hoffmann, pages 1–2:

     A Doge, richly and magnificently dressed, and a Dogess at his side, as richly adorned with jewellery, are stepping out on to a balustered balcony; […] Independently of the fact that I have a pretty accurate notion of what the relations in life between this Doge and Dogess were, I am more particularly struck by the subdued richness and power that characterises the picture as a whole.

   • 1888, William Scott, transl., The Basilica of S. Mark in Venice Illustrated from the Points of View of Art and History by Venetian Writers under the Direction of Prof. Camillo Boito, Ferdinando Ongania, page 427:

     The form of the sepulchre of the Dogess was, perhaps, suggested by the dimensions of the old fragments of the law of eurithmy. […] It would seem that authors of this monument endeavoured to surpass that of the Dogess in magnificence, by encrusting the sides with squares of double dentils of select marbles, and by crowning them with a common cyma.

   • 1905, Francis Marion Crawford, “x Doges in Fourteenth Century”, in Salve Venetia: Gleanings from Venetian History, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, […], page 297:

     During the following days festivities were organised for the coronation of the Dogess, much more various and of longer duration than those which greeted her husband’s elevation to the throne. In older times, when the head of the Republic still possessed real power, his wife played no official part in State ceremonies.

   • 1986, Malcolm Hardman, Ruskin and Bradford: An Experiment in Victorian Cultural History, Manchester, Dover, N.H.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 298:

     A ‘poetical temperament’ might see an Athenian democracy electing a neo-medieval Doge and Dogess of Venice to revive as a first step to social renewal the communism of the apostles.

   • 2002, Alice Thomas, transl., Richard Creed’s Journal of the Grand Tour, 1699-1700: […], Oundle Museum, translation of original by Richard Creed, →ISBN, page 43:

     The present Doge is Silvester Valerio. He has been Doge about eight years (and) is almost 70 years old. He has an old lady which they call the Dogess. There has not been a Dogess before this 300 years.