"princess" in seven languages
Meaningprincess
Spanish
princesa
/pɾinˈθesa/
fem.learned
French
princesse
/pʁɛ̃sɛs/
fem.learned
Italian
principessa
/printʃiˈpessa/
fem.learned
Portuguese
princesa
/pɾĩˈsezɐ/
fem.borrowed · French princesse
Romanian
prințesă
/prinˈtsesə/
fem.borrowed · French princesse and German Prinzessin
Catalan
princesa
/prinˈsɛzə/
fem.borrowed · French princesse
English
princess
/ˈpɹɪnsɛs/
from Latin/French · Old French princesse
English → ItalianprincessprincipessaCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
PRĪNCIPEM‘the first, the leading man’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
The feminine uses the suffix -esse / -essa, which Late Latin took from Greek -issa. Italian keeps the whole of principe inside principessa; Spanish princesa is shorter than its príncipe.
English relatives: prince, principal, principle
Sound laws at work
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In a sentence
- esLa princesa vive en un castillo.
- frLa princesse vit dans un château.
- itLa principessa vive in un castello.
- ptA princesa mora num castelo.
- roPrințesa locuiește într-un castel.
- caLa princesa viu en un castell.
- enThe princess lives in a castle.
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