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    [Noun]  | "ab*bess" | \ ˈa-bəs \


    1: a woman who is the superior of a convent of nuns


    Origin: 14th century ;

     Middle English abbesse, borrowed from Anglo-French abbesse, abeiesse, borrowed from Late Latin abbātissa, feminine derivative of abbāt-, abbās {see: |abbot|abbot};

     [ "Abbess" ]

    1: Female brothel keeper. A Madame.

      * e.g.,  ... "Polly Adler, in her memoir 'A House is Not a Home,' tells of her time as the abbess of the Big Town's poshest nunnery."  


     [ "Abbess" ]

    2: Etymology: Victorian underworld slang. An abbess (Latin abbatissa, fem. form of abbas, abbot) is the female superior, or Mother Superior, of an abbey or convent of nuns. Since the Elizabethan era, nun has been slang for a prostitute (ref. William Faulkner, "Requiem for a Nun"), and a nunnery referred to a brothel.

      * e.g.,  ... Walter Winchell, 1953 

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