On female males, i.e., "patriarchesses"

Jim Moore (am745@FREENET.TORONTO.ON.CA)
Tue, 19 Mar 1996 09:12:24 -0500

JM> includes the word "patriarchess: a female patriarch".

>While the term "patriarchess" is as archaic as that of "authoress"
>and I would not recommend the use of either-- particularly in
>today's polarized climate-- to dismiss all such terms as
>"ridiculous" suggests a remarkably astigmatic view
>of both history and philology.

I'd have to say that there's a fundamental difference in the terms
"authoress" and "patriarchess", and the word patriarchess, unlike
authoress, is definitely an absurdity of twilight-zone proportions.

Jim Moore e-mail: j#d#.moore@canrem.com
or: am745@torfree.net