murderess

English

Alternative forms

• murdress

Etymology

From Middle English morderes, from Old French morderesse, moeurdrese; equivalent to murder +‎ -ess.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɜːdəˈɹɛs/, /ˈmɜːdəɹɪs/, /ˈmɜːdɹɪs/, /-ɹəs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɝdəɹəs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs, -ɜː(ɹ)dɹɪs
• Homophone: murderous (one pronunciation)
• Hyphenation: mur‧der‧ess

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

murderess (plural murderesses)

1. (dated) female equivalent of murderer: a woman who commits murder.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “Triumph”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 228:

     ‘[…] Yet am I very fair, Kallikrates!’ / ‘I hate thee, murdress, and I have no wish to see thee. […]’

   • 1992 March 4, Elizabeth Grice, “Why a spell inside gave fresh hope to ‘Tart Number One’”, in The Daily Telegraph, number 42,516, London, page 15, column 1:

     “All the murderesses I met in prison”, she [Kathryn George-Harries] says lightly, “had committed their crimes in domestic arguments. They chose the gun. I chose to go for the Meissen. Nobody’s worth doing life for.”

   • 2014 October 5, Matt Rudd, “Scandal! Horror! Homicide! Murders by gaslight”, in The Times‎^[1], London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 October 2023:

     Our maniacal murderess filled a bonnet box and a Gladstone bag with all but the head and the foot of poor Mrs Thomas, and threw them from Richmond bridge.

Translations

woman who commits murder

• Albanian: vrasëse (sq) f
• Arabic: قَاتِلَة f (qātila)
• Bulgarian: уби́йца f (ubíjca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 女殺手／女杀手 (nǚshāshǒu)

• Czech: vražedkyně (cs) f
• Danish: morderske c
• Dutch: moordenares (nl) f, moordenaarster f
• Esperanto: murdintino
• French: meurtrière (fr) f
• German: Mörderin (de) f
• Greek: φόνισσα (el) f (fónissa), δολοφόνισσα (el) f (dolofónissa)

  Ancient: φονεύτρια f (phoneútria)

• Hebrew: רוצחת \ רוֹצַחַת f (rotsákhat)
• Italian: assassina (it) f, omicida (it) f
• Latin: interfectrīx f, necatrix f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: morderske m or f

  Nynorsk: morderske f

• Polish: morderczyni (pl) f, zabójczyni (pl) f
• Portuguese: assassina (pt) f
• Russian: уби́йца (ru) m or f (ubíjca) (both genders), же́нщина-уби́йца f (žénščina-ubíjca)
• Slovak: vrahyňa (sk) f
• Spanish: asesina (es) f
• Swedish: mörderska (sv) c
• Telugu: ఘాతిని (te) (ghātini), హంతకురాలు (hantakurālu)