Emperice

Em´per`ice

An empress.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by G. & C. Merriam Co.

References in periodicals archive ?

The first attested borrowings are countesse 'the wife of a count or an earl' and emperice 'the consort of an emperor' from the Peterborough Chronicle.

On some French elements in early middle English word derivation

He saugh a mayde walkynge hym biforn, Of which mayde anon, maugree hir heed, Be verray force, he rafte hire maydenhed; (III [D] 886-88) (1) but because it is ultimately rewarded, not just by good luck but as a matter of deliberate judicial policy, with a lifetime of "parfit joye" (1258), which the ravisher obtains in the company of a wife who is both obedient and as beautiful "As any lady, emperice, or queene" (1246).