Abbess Edit Meaning

1.

Female brothel keeper. A Madame.

Etymology: Victorian underworld slang. An abbess (Latin abbatissa, fem. form of abbas, abbot) is the female superior, or Mother Superior, of an abbey or convent of nuns. Since the Elizabethan era, nunhas been slang for a prostitute (ref. William Faulkner, "Requiem for a Nun"), and a nunneryreferred to a brothel.

"Polly Adler, in her memoir 'A House is Not a Home,' tells of her time as the abbess of the Big Town's poshest nunnery."

Walter Winchell, 1953

See hooker, madame, nun, whore