pythoness

American  

[pahy-thuh-nis, pith-uh-] / ˈpaɪ θə nɪs, ˈpɪθ ə- /

noun

1. a woman believed to be possessed by a soothsaying spirit, as the priestess of Apollo at Delphi.

2. a woman who practices divination.

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pythoness British  

/ ˈpaɪθəˌnɛs /

noun

1. a woman, such as Apollo's priestess at Delphi, believed to be possessed by an oracular spirit

2. a female soothsayer

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Gender

See -ess.

Etymology

Origin of pythoness

1325–75; python ² + -ess; replacing Middle English phytonesse < Middle French

Example Sentences

Against this doom Genevi�ve Tabouis, ex-political pythoness of Paris' Leftist L'Oeuvre, for seven years waged a one-woman struggle, of which these memoirs are a record.

From Time Magazine Archive

The pythoness, gone astray, is found there no longer.

From The Temptation of St. Antony or A Revelation of the Soul by Flaubert, Gustave

Liszt's attitude at the piano, like that of a pythoness, has been remarked again and again.

From Franz Liszt by Huneker, James

To natural madness, to poetry and the other gifts allied to it, to prophecy like that of the Delphic pythoness, he has to add, fourthly, the "enthusiasm of the ideas."

From Plato and Platonism by Pater, Walter

Thereupon ensued a hideous war; a yelling as of the evil demons with which the pythoness pretended to be familiar; unintelligible to vulgar ears; requiring an interpreter from the oyster-quays.

From Trevethlan: (Vol 2 of 3) A Cornish Story. by Watson, William Davy