prime ministress

English

Etymology

From prime minister +‎ -ess.

Noun

prime ministress (plural prime ministresses)

1. (dated) A female prime minister.

   Synonym: (rare) prime ministrix

   • 1859 June 18, “My Advisers”, in Charles Dickens, editor, All the Year Round. […], volume I, number 8, London: […], page 182, column 2:

     Mrs. Drilling may, in fact, be pronounced the Première or Prime Ministress of my Majesty’s Council of Advisers.

   • 1860, Albany Fonblanque, Jun., “King Fashion”, in The Welcome Guest: A Magazine of Recreative Reading for All, […], London: Houlston and Wright, […], page 280, column 1:

     Then shall we hear of the beautiful Mrs. Camac reigning as Queen of Hastings, and mixing daily with her lieges upon the Steyne, seated in an open carriage, drawn by six white horses, and followed by four outriders. Then shall we find my Lord of Lorn (afterwards Duke of Argyle), Lord Petersham, Colonel Carpenter, Messrs. Streffington, Brummel, and Reynolds, installed respectively as Grand Viziers of the Sultan Fashion; and Lady Charlotte Campbell (afterwards Lady C. Bury, the authoress), the Duchesses of Devonshire and Gordon, Lady Sarah Fane, and Lady Jersey (not the Prince Regent’s Lady Jersey), in possession of the seals of office as his prime ministresses, each with a powerful cabinet of her own.

   • 1873 May 1, “Parliament. House of Commons—Yesterday. Women’s Disabilities Bill.”, in The Western Times, number 7,108, Exeter, Devon, page 4, column 3:

     If they gave the right of voting they could not withhold the right of being voted for, and in the end they would have that monstrous and repulsive creature, la femme homme. It might be pleasant to have a blooming and engaging First Commissioner of Works, and a lovely and accomplished Postmistress-General, but what would be thought if a great measure were stopped in its career because the learned Attorney-General had eloped with the Solicitress-General, or if the public business was at a stand-still on account of the accouchement of the Prime Ministress?

   • 1927 April 25, “Tennyson’s Princesses. Chicago Herald Examiner.”, in The Ottawa Evening Citizen, 84th year, number 264, Ottawa, Ont., page twenty, column 3:

     They will elect a woman prime minister and “petticoat politics” will ride the government steeds astride. Why not—in England? The only two monarchs they have had for 400 years in whom they took real national pride were a pair of queens—Elizabeth and Victoria. If queens, why not prime ministresses?

   • 1940 November 30, “This Bally Ally Rally”, in Smith’s Weekly, Sydney, N.S.W., page 7:

     MAKE yourself comfortable on a log and meet the future Prime Ministers of Australia. At least they are potential Prime Ministers, or Prime Ministresses. THEY are to be found in a region of multi-colored parrots, scarlet banksias, white-blossomed red-gums, and blue boundlessness of ocean. Not that they are merely a set of surfers. They are a bit above that sort of thing—1200ft above it, to be exact. They are members of Ally, attending a Study Camp at Stanwell Tops. Ally is short for Australian Labor League of Youth, and Stanwell Tops is an arcadian spot 1200ft above Stanwell Park, on the way to the N.S.W. South Coast, and 30 odd miles from Sydney.

   • 1943, Douglas Reed, Lest We Regret, London: Jonathan Cape, […], →OCLC, page 150:

     When there is only one man left in England, and you have taken from him every right and wrong with which he was born, when you are all Field-Marshals and he peels the potatoes for your meals in the mess, when you are both Prime Ministresses of England, wearing trousers habitually and carrying an umbrella always, you will still expect that one last man to pay for your lunch.

   • 1977 April 10, Marcy Bachmann, “Frankly Female: Perfect Society”, in The Oakland Sunday Tribune, Oakland, Calif., page 33:

     The Society was governed jointly by the Great He and the Great She who made all decisions together. They were counseled by a select group of Prime Ministers and Prime Ministresses (Minister was too masculine and Mistress was certainly unsuitable).

   • 1980, V[aidyanathapuram] R[ama] Krishna Iyer, Minorities, Civil Liberties, and Criminal Justice, New Delhi: People’s Publishing House, →OCLC, page 12:

     Let us dwell briefly on the threefold requisites for an equal association between the sexes for achieving socially-directed goals. At the threshold, mark you, this is part of a way by the weak against the strong; this is re-reading religion, re-writing literature and history, re-building economics and politics, and radicalising sex sociology. This is a grim battle, not won by stray queens and prime ministresses and fortunate women of letters of science. It is a massive campaign not carried on by sophisticated ‘hen conventions’ or ‘gentle ladies’ organisations.

   • 1987, Guy Ragland Phillips, The Unpolluted God, Pocklington, E. Yorks: Northern Lights, →ISBN, page 16:

     The adherents of the Great Goddess tend to ignore the painful fact that goddesses, like queens and prime ministresses, have a record not noticeably more humane than that of their male counterparts.

   • 2012, Emily Gillespie Clement, Bea and the Smart Kids, →ISBN, page 10:

     The Prime Ministress proudly handed Hortensia a small drawstring bag, made of green silk, whose lumpy contents seemed to shift within it like jumping beans.

2. (archaic, rare) The wife of a prime minister.
   • 1855 August 15, John, Lord Campbell, edited by [Mary Scarlett] Hardcastle, Life of John, Lord Campbell, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain: Consisting of a Selection from His Autobiography, Diary, and Letters, volume II, London: John Murray, […], published 1881, page 335:

     I met Palmerston [Henry John Temple] yesterday at the prorogation. He looked cheerful, as he would do if he were going to the gallows. I congratulated Lady Palmerston [Emily Temple] as being Prime Ministress.

   • 1860, Bayard Taylor, “Aspects of German Society”, in At Home and Abroad: A Sketch-Book of Life, Scenery, and Men, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam, […], page 466:

     As the husband climbs upwards on the official ladder, his wife climbs with him. She shares his ambition and his triumphs, and rejoices to be called “Madame Field-Marshaless” or “Madame Prime Ministress;” almost as much as if herself had won the star or baton.

   • 1865 March 31, “Politics and General Gossip. (From our London Correspondent).”, in The Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet, and General Advertiser, number 3224, Truro, Cornwall, page 5, column 4:

     The second grand reception—brilliant the papers call it—was at a later hour the same evening at Cambridge House, by the Viscountess Palmerston [Emily Temple]. It might rather be called early on Sunday morning, for it was nearly twelve o’clock when the last visitors arrived. Her Ladyship received upwards of 400 members of the corps diplomatique, the leading aristocracy, members of Parliament, &c.—rather heavy duty for one evening. But, the Prime Ministress is worthy of her Lord, and did the agreeable most graciously.

   • 1911 August 2, “Notes and Comments”, in The Bathurst Times, Bathurst, N.S.W., page [2], column 2:

     Mr. [Andrew] Fisher says he didn’t say it. Mr. Stead says he did. Consequently “Julia” seems to be the guilty party. The alleged interview is said to have taken place without witnesses. Was Julia present? This is the question which Mr. Fisher will have to answer when Mrs. Fisher begins to make enquiries. Something has been said; and woman-like, the Prime Ministress will never rest until she has a confession from the husband of the Prime Ministress as to what he did really whisper into “Julia’s” little pink ear. It is hoped that no political complications will arise over the Stead-Fisher episode; but all Australians will wish that all future Prime Ministresses will see that their husbands don’t go fooling around with spooks—not even Stead’s spooks.

   • 2002, Colin Clifford, The Asquiths, London: John Murray, published 2003, →ISBN, page 164:

     The following day [H. H.] Asquith left for a well earned break in Cannes. It is not clear why Margot did not accompany him, but his absence left the ‘Prime Ministress’, as she now called herself, free to conduct some politicking of her own.