different between usherette vs usher

English

Etymology

usher +? -ette

Noun

usherette (plural usherettes)

1. (dated) A female usher.
   • 1905, Alan Dale, “Dramatic Flashes from London and Paris,” Ainslee’s Magazine, Volume 16, September 1905, p. 152,^[1]

     It is such a tiny little place that at first I thought I had gone wrong, and was in an antechamber. Plain papered walls, ascetic chairs, a moldy piano, and a couple of usherettes seemed extremely bare.

   • 1954, Louis Trimble, “Probability” in If: Worlds of Science Fiction, April, 1954,^[2]

     He says, “Mike, let's do the town.” Can you refuse a guy who just gives you a thirty thousand dollar property? We do the town. We do the girl shows, and he yells at all the dames and tries to date the usherettes until we finally get pitched out. […] ”

   • 1960, Muriel Spark, The Ballad of Peckham Rye, London: Macmillan, Chapter 7,

     […] I won’t even see her again till next Saturday night on account of her doing week-nights as an usherette at the Regal […]

   • 1994, Glenn Collins, “Making it work. Sentinels of Broadway,” The New York Times, 24 April, 1994,^[3]

     But please don’t call them usherettes. […] “Usherette makes us sound as if we’re miniature ushers or something. It’s an old term that we’re trying to get rid of.”

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English ussher, uscher, usscher, from Anglo-Norman usser and Old French ussier, uissier (“porter, doorman”) (compare French huissier), from Vulgar Latin *usti?rius (“doorkeeper”), from Latin ?sti?rius, from ?stium (“door”). Akin to ?s (“mouth”). Probably a doublet of ostiary and huissier.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?sh?-?r, IPA^(key): /?????/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): [?a?.?(?)]
• (UK) IPA^(key): [???.?(?)]
• (US) IPA^(key): [???.?]
• Rhymes: -???(?)
• Hyphenation: ush?er

Noun

usher (plural ushers)

1. A person, in a church, cinema etc., who escorts people to their seats.
2. A male escort at a wedding.
3. A doorkeeper in a courtroom.
4. (obsolete) An assistant to a head teacher or schoolteacher; an assistant teacher.
   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.12:

     [H]e defrayed the expence of his entrance, and left him in the particular care and inspection of the usher, who […] though obliged by the scandalous administration of fortune to act in the character of an inferior teacher, had by his sole capacity and application, brought the school to that degree of reputation which it never could have obtained from the talents of his superior.

   • 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford 2008, p. 33:

     He began to learn Latin with Mr. Hawkins, usher, or under-master of Lichfield school, ‘a man (said he) very skilful in his little way.’

5. (dated, derogatory) Any schoolteacher.

Synonyms

• (male attendant at a wedding): groomsman, bridesman

Derived terms

• usherette
• usheress

Translations

Verb

usher (third-person singular simple present ushers, present participle ushering, simple past and past participle ushered)

1. To guide people to their seats.
   • 1836, Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz, "The curate. The old lady. The half-pay captain."

     Her entrance into church on Sunday is always the signal for a little bustle in the side aisle, occasioned by a general rise among the poor people, who bow and curtsey until the pew-opener has ushered the old lady into her accustomed seat, dropped a respectful curtsey, and shut the door;
2. To accompany or escort (someone).
   • 1898, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic, page 509

     Margaret was astonished at the magnificence of the apartments into which she was ushered.

3. (figuratively) To precede; to act as a forerunner or herald.
   • 1912, Elizabeth Christine Cook, Literary Influences in Colonial Newspapers, 1704-1750, page 31

     Thus the Harvard poets and wits ushered The New England Courant out of existence.

4. (figuratively, transitive) to lead or guide somewhere

Derived terms

• usher in

Translations

Anagrams

• Huser, Rhues, Ruhes, Uhers, erhus, huers, shure