different between abbess vs sister

English

Alternative forms

• abbatess, abbotess (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English abbesse, from Old French abeesse (French abbesse), from Late Latin or Ecclesiastical Latin abbatissa, feminine of Latin abbas, abbatis (“abbot”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?æb.?s/, /?æb.?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?æb.?s/, /?æb.?s/

Noun

abbess (plural abbesses)

1. A female superior or governess of a nunnery, or convent of nuns, having the same authority over the nuns which the abbots have over the monks. [First attested around 1150 to 1350]

   The abbess was always after the nuns to keep the convent immaculately clean.

2. (archaic, British slang) A woman who runs a brothel; a woman employed by a prostitute to find clients.

Synonyms

• (female superior of a nunnery): mother superior
• (woman who runs a brothel): bawd, Covent Garden abbess, lady abbess, madam

Related terms

• abbey
• abbot

Translations

References

English

Etymology

From Middle English sister, suster, from Old English swustor, sweoster, sweostor (“sister, nun”); from Proto-Germanic *swest?r (“sister”), from Proto-Indo-European *swés?r (“sister”).

Cognate with Scots sister, syster (“sister”), West Frisian sus, suster (“sister”), Dutch zuster (“sister”), German Schwester (“sister”), Norwegian Bokmål søster (“sister”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish syster (“sister”), Icelandic systir (“sister”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (swistar, “sister”), Latin soror (“sister”), Russian ??????? (sestrá, “sister”), Lithuanian sesuo (“sister”), Albanian vajzë (“girl, maiden”), Sanskrit ????? (svás?, “sister”), Persian ?????? (xâhar, “sister”).

In standard English, the form with i is due to contamination with Old Norse systir (“sister”).

The plural sistren is from Middle English sistren, a variant plural of sister, suster (“sister”); compare brethren.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?s.t?/
• (General American) enPR: s?s't?r, IPA^(key): /?s?s.t?/
• Rhymes: -?st?(r)
• Hyphenation: sis?ter

Noun

sister (plural sisters or (archaic in most senses) sistren)

1. A daughter of the same parents as another person; a female sibling.

   Synonym: (slang) sis

   Antonym: brother

   Hypernym: sibling

2. A female member of a religious order; especially one devoted to more active service; (informal) a nun.

   Synonyms: nun, sistren

   Coordinate terms: brother, friar, frater

3. Any butterfly in the genus Adelpha, so named for the resemblance of the dark-colored wings to the black habit traditionally worn by nuns.
4. (Britain) A senior or supervisory nurse, often in a hospital.

   Synonym: charge nurse

5. Any woman or girl with whom a bond is felt through common membership of a race, profession, religion or organization, such as feminism.
6. (slang, sometimes capitalized) A black woman.
   • 2009, Rajen Persaud, Why Black Men Love White Women, Simon and Schuster (?ISBN), page 171:

     The short “naps” of the average Sister do not sway in the wind as that of a blonde.

7. (informal) A form of address to a woman.

   Synonyms: darling, dear, love, (US) lady, miss, (northern UK) pet

8. A woman, in certain labour or socialist circles; also as a form of address.
9. (attributively) An entity that has a special or affectionate, non-hierarchical relationship with another.

   Synonyms: affiliate, affiliated

10. (computing theory) A node in a data structure that shares its parent with another node.
11. (usually attributively) Something in the same class.

Usage notes

• In Roman Catholicism, a distinction is often drawn (especially by members of female religious orders) between nuns and sisters, the former being cloistered and devoted primarily to prayer, the latter being more active, doing work such as operating hospitals, caring for the poor, or teaching.
• The plural sistren is no longer commonly used for biological sisters in contemporary English (although it was in the past) but may be found in some religious, feminist, or poetic usage.

Derived terms

Related terms

• sororal
• sistren

Coordinate terms

• brother
• brethren

Descendants

• ? Gulf Arabic: ???????? (sist?r, “female nurse”)
• ? Japanese: ???? (shisut?)
• ? Korean: ??? (siseuteo)

Translations

Verb

sister (third-person singular simple present sisters, present participle sistering, simple past and past participle sistered)

1. (transitive, construction) To strengthen (a supporting beam) by fastening a second beam alongside it.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To be sister to; to resemble closely.
   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act V, Scene 1

     Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her needle composes

     Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,

     That even her art sisters the natural roses;

     Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry

Translations

Further reading

• Sister (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• sister in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Istres, Reists, reists, resist, resits, restis, risest

Middle English

Noun

sister

1. Alternative form of suster

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English sister, syster, forms of suster influenced by Old Norse systir, from Old English sweostor, swustor, sweoster, from Proto-Germanic *swest?r, from Proto-Indo-European *swés?r.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?s?st?r]

Noun

sister (plural sisteris)

1. sister

Derived terms

• guid-sister