giantess

English

Etymology

From Middle English geauntesse, geaunesse, from Old French; equivalent to giant +‎ -ess.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒaɪəntɛs/

Noun

giantess (plural giantesses)

1. (fantasy, mythology) A female giant.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     He spide far off a mighty Giauntesse / Fast flying, on a Courser dapled gray […]

   • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 218:

     In the corner lay against the wall a stringed instrument not unlike a dulcimer, which, as people believe, the Giantesses used to play on.

   • 1926, Enid Blyton, The Book of Brownies:

     The giantess picked him up and gave him such a squeeze that he felt he was going to choke.

   • 1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 72:

     The giantesses lift arms like the trunks of sycamores, each finger tipped with an amaranthine talon.

Translations

female giant

• French: géante (fr) f
• Georgian: გოლიათი ქალი (goliati kali)
• Irish: banfhathach m
• Italian: gigantessa f
• Latvian: milze f
• Manx: caillagh foawragh f
• Old Norse: gýgr f, íviðja f
• Polish: gigantka f, olbrzymka (pl) f
• Portuguese: giganta (pt) f
• Romanian: uriașă (ro) f, gigantă f, zmeoaică (ro) f, zmeoaie (ro) f
• Swedish: jättinna (sv) c

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