Why is the wife of a duke called a duchess and not a dukess?

[plowter]

Why is the wife of a duke called a duchess and not a dukess?

[MarkRae]

Seriously...?

[DTCwordfan]

because one is male and the other is female.

[DTCwordfan]

And as they say, "No Shyte, Sherlock"

[lcg]

because.....

[lcg]

what about an earl and countess? that really is a mystery.

[Zacs-Master]

And why is a queen not called a Kingess. Mmm.

[dotty.]

a duke has a duchy not a dukey therefore a duchess

[DTCwordfan]

Or Sir and Lady or Lord and The Lady.....yet a lot of their offspring are called "Bas-***"

[MarkRae]

A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.

[Zacs-Master]

I said pass the duchy on d left hand side, pass the.......

[tonyav]

Is the wife of a Count a Countess ?

[Prudie]

Is the husband of a Marchioness a Martian?

[dundurn]

Because when the first dukes were created in England the court language was French so the titles were originally duc and duchesse. The spellings and the pronunciations have changed since then but not enough to warrant a dukess!

[MarkRae]

http://www.merriam-we...com/dictionary/maness

[plowter]

It's been a few years since the Normans and all that feudal fiddle-di-dee. Seems sensible to regularise the language so what would be wrong with Catherine Dukess of Cambridge?

[woofgang]

regularise english? Thats a forth bridge painter of a job!

[MarkRae]

Which itself is an out-of-date analogy... :-)

[boxtops]

..or just call William the Duck of Cambridge.

[Noggin-the-Nog]

Tommy Duke live beside me. His wife wasn't called Duchess, she was called Gertrude.

[Zacs-Master]

Gertrude Duke. Nice name. I hope she ran a pie n mash shop.