Notes & Queries Archive
REPLY1850

Shipster

By E. S. JACKSON.

If C. B. will consult Dr. Latham's *English Language*, 2nd ed., he will find that the termination *ster* is not merely a *notion* of Tyrwhitt's, but a fact. Sempstress has a *double* feminine termination. *Spinster* is the only word in the present English which retains the old feminine meaning of the termination *ster*.

Topics: English Language, Linguistics