pythoness

[ pahy-thuh-nis, pith-uh- ]

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.

pythoness

/ ˈpaɪθəˌnɛs /

noun

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

Gender Note

See -ess.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pythoness¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of pythoness¹

C14 phitonesse, ultimately from Greek Puthōn Python

Example Sentences

"It's ready, Berlusconi will decide when to broadcast it and I think it is absolutely imminent," Daniela Santanche, a deputy nicknamed "the pythoness" for her fierce devotion to the media billionaire, told a news conference.

From Reuters

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

From Project Gutenberg

The scene in the glen, the image of the unprepossessing and mysterious pythoness, and the substance and manner of the sinister warning she communicated, were indeed fixed in her memory ineffaceably.

From Project Gutenberg

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 Project Gutenberg

Not a trace of the sacred madness that uplifted the Delphian pythoness or provoked the delirious visions of a Jeremiah or an Ezekiel!

From Project Gutenberg