ever used for words recognized as English.

[Sidenote: _Slightly changed and widely used._]

(2) That regarded as the standard or regular termination of the
feminine, _-ess_ (French _esse_, Low Latin _issa_), the one most used.
The corresponding masculine may have the ending _-er_ (_-or_), but in
most cases it has not. Whenever we adopt a new masculine word, the
feminine is formed by adding this termination _-ess_.

Sometimes the _-ess_ has been added to a word already feminine by the
ending _-ster_; as _seam-str-ess_, _song-str-ess_. The ending _-ster_
had then lost its force as a feminine suffix; it has none now in the
words _huckster_, _gamester_, _trickster_, _punster_.

[Sidenote: _Ending of masculine not changed._]

30. The ending _-ess_ is added to many words without changing the
ending of the masculine; as,--

baron--baroness
count--countess
lion--lioness
Jew--Jewess
heir--heiress
host--hostess
priest--priestess
giant--giantess

[Sidenote: _Masculine ending dropped._]

The masculine ending may be dropped before the feminine _-ess_ is
added; as,--

abbot--abbess
negro--negress
murderer--murderess
sorcerer--sorceress

[Sidenote: _Vowel dropped before adding_ -ess.]

The feminine may discard a vowel which appears in the masculine; as
in--

actor--actress
master--mistress
benefactor--benefactress
emperor--empress
tiger--tigress
enchanter--enchantress

_Empress_ has been cut down from _emperice_ (twelfth century) and
_emperesse_ (thirteenth century), from Latin _imperatricem_.

_Master_ and _mistress_ were in Middle English
_maister_--_maistresse_, from the Old French _maistre_--_maistresse_.

31. When the older _-en_ and _-ster_ went out of use as the
distinctive mark of the feminine, the ending _-ess_, from the French
_-esse_, sprang into a popularity much greater than at present.

[Sidenote: _Ending_ -ess _less used now than formerly._]

Instead of saying _doctress_, _fosteress_, _wagoness_, as was said in
the sixteenth century, or _servauntesse_, _teacheresse_,
_neighboresse_, _frendesse_, as in the fourteenth century, we have
dispensed with the ending in many cases, and either use a prefix word
or leave the masculine to do work for the feminine also.

Thus, we say _doctor_ (masculine and feminine) or _woman doctor_,
_teacher_ or _lady teacher_, _neighbor_ (masculine and feminine), etc.
We frequently use such words as _author_, _editor_, _c