Female title?

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I know mistress is the feminine form of master. Cool. Now, are females Master Thief called master or are they Mistress Thieves?

It doesn't sound right using mistress before the noun, but it does sound fine when I use the verb form first - Thieving Mistress. Would Mistress of Thieving be okay?

Which is the proper title for a female in my example? If there isn't one, being called a Master Thief is fine. I just want to know if there is a feminine version of this or similar titles.

 

If there isn't one, there SHOULD be.

 

"Master thief", I believe. It's a compound noun, therefore the feminine gender of the object doesn't carry enough weight to deviate from the default and general masculine gender (you don't say Medical Doctress for example). By contrast, "thief mistress" would have to be feminine, cf. "merchant prince" and "merchant princess", or even "ketchup princess". Down with Kerry, btw.

I think "master thief" is closer to "masterful thief" than anything that actually denotes gender in any way. However, it's not like "mistress thief" would be incorrect, but the specific gender denotation would be quite unusual and it would create the impression that for some reason you want to underline the gender rather than merely indicate it. It will indeed look like it's more than just a feminine form. It will suggest the person is a part of the class of female master thieves, rather than simply a female member of the class of master thieves.

 

Some words are not actually gender related. I think Chev is correct. Master indicates someone who has mastered the particular skill. Novice is someone who is just starting out learning the skill. Even the word journeyman simply means someone who has skills but hasn't quite reach Master. Although in this case I think the term journey-woman could be used but not by me.

Note: Spell check tells me that the word is either journey woman or journey-woman. No such word as journeywoman.

Interesting concept. Master thief but Thief Mistress. When the word modifies another word it has a different meaning than when it is modified by a word. Never gave this much thought; if any.

 

Like I said, it won't bother me to be called a Master Thief. I just wanted to hear opinions from others because I was confused about it.

 

Well, I agree what Nakia says about the word "master". "Master seamstress", not "mistress seamster" or "mistress seamstress", for instance.

 

It depends on what form of master you are using. The term master in this case could mean one of two things, either a level of skill that has been reached or a position of authority. If you are for example talking about being the master of a guild then I believe Mistress would be the apropriate term. But in that case the title would be 'Mistress of the Thieves Guild'.

I guess it depends on what the title is in reference to. A position of authority over people or a position of authority on a subject?

 

The position is a high level thief.

 

Then they are a Master Thief irrespective of gender, meaning that they have mastered their trade; usually by having completed an apprenticeship and possibly a Journeyman examination as well.

 

Yeah, sounds like Master Thief is the way to go; 'Mistress Thief' seems awkward, and even though 'Mistress of Thievery' sounds pretty good and flows well, it brings to mind (to me at least) lots of skin-tight black leather.

 

I'm on the side of "master thief" for female high-skill thieves. "Mistress thief" sound awkward and "thief mistress" sound like, uh, sexual partner of a thief. I know, terribly old-fashioned connotation of the word "mistress" and probably sexist. But that's what popped into my mind when I saw it.

 

Can't call you a chauvinist, revmaf, because that is exactly what popped into my mind.

 

What about "masterly theiving mistress"?

 

Sounds like you're misbehaving

 

Or "mistress thieving masters".

 

i believe it should be master thief cause master is not a sex-based title, you can use on both sex' male & female