poetess

Poetess is a historical term used to refer to a female poet. It is formed by adding the feminine suffix -ess to the word poet and was widely used in English from the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term appeared in literary criticism, biographical writing, and sometimes in titles or cataloging of works by women poets.

Over time, poetess came to be perceived as gendered and, in some contexts, as diminutive or patronizing. This shift reflected broader changes in language and attitudes toward women writers. By the mid-20th century, many editors and scholars preferred the neutral poet for all genders, or specified "female poet" only when gender needed to be indicated. In contemporary usage, poetess is often avoided in mainstream writing but may be encountered in historical discussion, bibliographies of older texts, or in quotes that preserve the original language of a source.

In scholarly contexts, the term is typically treated as historical or contextual, with attention to how language reflects social norms of its time. Discussions of female poets increasingly emphasize equality of designation and the broad range of contributions by women to poetry, without relying on gendered titles.

See also: gendered titles in English, feminization of occupational names, list of female poets. The term poetess is generally regarded as archaic in modern prose and is seldom used outside discussions of historical usage or in quotations from earlier periods.