sergeantess

English

Etymology

From Middle English sergeantesse; equivalent to sergeant +‎ -ess.

Noun

sergeantess (plural sergeantesses)

1. (dated) A female sergeant.
   • 1684, The Parliament of Women, or, A Compleat History of the Proceedings and Debates, of a Particular Junto, of Ladies and Gentlewomen, with a Design to Alter the Government of the World by Way of Satyr, London: […] John Holford, page 13:

     Mrs. Taradoodle,Sergeantess at Mace.

   • [1735], An Address to the Right Worshipful the Batchelors of Great-Britain, London: […] A. Antiquity, page 6:

     Ordered, That the Sergeanteſs at Arms, attending this House, do forthwith go with the Mace, to ſummon all the Members to attend the Service of this Houſe on Tueſday next.

   • 1846, Dan Mendon, “Finesse.—Denunciation—Threatened Judgment—The Power of a Curse.—Proselyting.”, in Lo Here and Lo There! or, The Grave of the Heart, New York, N.Y.: […] the Author, page 77:

     They have regular recruiting sergeants and sergeantesses, whom they send out to lie in wait for the unwary, and after intoxicating them with the poison of superstition, induce them to enlist.

   • 1846 February 28, The Manchester Guardian, number 1,789, page 9:

     This sister, who, we were told, bore the title and rank of sergeantess (sargenta), possessed the remains of great beauty, and her (probably) forty summers had not injured her commanding and graceful figure.

   • 1880 March 25, Knoxville Daily Chronicle‎^[1], volume X, Knoxville, Tenn.:

     Imagine Sam. going down Broadway some afternoon with a captainess in front of him, a lieutenantess on either side of him, and a sergeantess in the rear!

   • 1882 October 9, Wisconsin State Journal‎^[2], volume XXXI, number 41, Madison, Wis.:

     Miss Belle Rolston was the orderly sergeantess, as Richard Grant White might say, and acquitted herself of her important duties in a faultless manner, receiving the highest praise for her accurate knowledge of every detail and graceful demeanor.

   • 1889 January 12, Buffalo Courier, volume LIV, number 12, Buffalo, N.Y., page 5:

     The girls are uniformed, armed and soldierly equipped, wearing navy blue dresses with white trimmings and fatigue caps. The gun is the same that was used during the recent political campaign by marching political organizations. There are thirty-two in the company. Franc. Oliver, one of the teachers, is “first sergeantess.”

   • 1885 June 13, Moonshine, volume XI, page 286:

     Miss Skittish was carrying on a fan flirtation with a distinguished male stranger in the gallery, and this being severely animadverted on by six or seven hon. members at the same moment, the deep-bayed voice of the Sergeantess-at-Arms was not at first heard.

   • 1907, Every Where, page 109:

     I was glad there were no sergeantesses on board: it might have congealed the water, and impeded navigation.

   • 1916, Edwin Milton Royle, Peace and Quiet, Harper & Brothers, page 111:

     Having seen to securing the chair for one of her partisans, and the sergeantess-at-arms for another, who was equipped for her martial duties with baby-blue eyes and dimples, she awaited with confidence the onslaught of the enemy, having had, not spies exactly, but, let us say, fountains of information in the hostile camp.

   • 1926, Everybody’s Magazine, page 42:

     In addition to acting as top-sergeantess, taking her orders from the Chief Steward and, in turn, bearing the responsibility of the discipline and efficiency of the thirty-five stewardesses under her, she is, at the same time sharing their work.

   • 1941 June 21, Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y., page 6:

     She drilled faithfully with the boys every morning and they made her a sergeantess and put stripes on her.

   • 1942 September 3, The Spokesman-Review, 60th year, number 112, Spokane, Wash., page 12:

     Sergeantess on Duty. Mrs. Pauline Morath began her duties as a desk sergeant at the Lewiston police station, the first woman on the force since 1863, when the city had a depot matron.

   • 1952 January 9, Los Gatos Daily Times, volume XVI, number 95, Los Gatos, Calif., page 6:

     There’ll be other bidders, no doubt . . . and I understand Nina Blakeley, that nice lady desk sergeantess in the police dept. may seek the treasureship from Bob Hamsher . . .

   • 1963 February 17, The Irving Daily News Texan, volume 57, number 40, Irving, Tex., page 1:

     Officers are (left to right, seated) Opal Rogers, second vice-president; Edythe Sego, president; and Xerma Langston, secretary; (standing, same order) Millie Hoeckendorf, first vice-president; Dottie Fink, sergeantess at arms; and Buddy Childers, treasurer.

   • 2008, Enrique Serna, Fear of Animals, Aflame Books, →ISBN, page 99:

     Evaristo forced himself to focus on the features of the happy sergeantess, whose voice seemed familiar.

   • 2012, Guillermo Busutil, “Murder at the Atlantic”, in Margaret Jull Costa, transl., edited by Helen Constantine, Madrid Tales, Oxford University Press, pages 92–93:

     This was the same fiery hell to which the Sergeantess (as she was known) would have liked to dispatch Capote and his gang, whenever she caught them throwing lit matches into the green letter boxes on the mezzanine. […] Anyway, at the time, my principal means of amusement before lunch was to read Zane Grey novels while seated outside Studio Akerman, from where I could also hear the news bulletin on National Radio emanating from the Sergeantess’s apartment.

   • 2014, Melania G[aia] Mazzucco, translated by Virginia Jewiss, Limbo, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 70:

     “Do you like Gigi D’Alessio, Sergeantess?” he asked me as he handed them over. “Sergeant,” I corrected him. If he thought he’d get a hysterical reaction, he was mistaken: I smiled. I wanted to assert myself mildly.

   • 2015, Yves Vander Cruysen, Waterloo Busting the Myths, →ISBN:

     The last battle of a Sergeantess