Other forms: mistresses
A mistress is a woman in authority, or a man's secret lover. The mistress of the house, a French mistress, his mistress.
The two senses show how far the female form drifted from the male: master kept its authority and mistress acquired a sexual sense that master never had. The teaching use survives in British schools. Note that Mrs and Miss are both contractions of mistress, and that mistress of a subject means mastery.
1nounwomanA woman in authority or command.
“The old dog would only obey its mistress.”
2nounmistressA man's secret lover.
“The king had a mistress, and the whole court knew about her.”
mistress is a woman in a role.
Old French maistresse is the feminine of maistre, master, from Latin magister. Mrs and Miss are contractions of it.
Middle English
maistresse
English, today
mistress
Built from
From Middle English maistresse. From Middle English maistresse, from Old French maistresse (whence French maîtresse), feminine of maistre (“master”). by surface analysis, mist(e)r + -ess.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire