princess

Princess is a hybrid, and a nice illustration of how a borrowed suffix becomes native equipment. Prince came from French; the ending -ess is also French, from Latin -issa and ultimately Greek; but princess itself, in the late 1300s, appears to be an English formation rather than a borrowing of Old French princesse. English had taken the ending in on enough words — countess, duchess, mistress — that it could make new ones unaided.

That is the test for whether a suffix has been naturalised: not whether it is foreign in origin, but whether English can attach it to something new. The word meant a woman of royal birth, or a ruler's daughter or wife, from the start. As a colloquial form of address to a woman it is recorded from 1924, though as a term for a lover it goes back to the early 1400s.

princess
(n.)
late 14c., "woman of royal or noble birth; daughter or wife of a ruler or prince; female ruler," a native formation; in some later instances from Old French
princesse
, fem. of
prince
(see
prince
). Compare Medieval Latin
principissa
, Italian
principessa
.
As a colloquial form of address to a woman or girl, it is recorded by 1924 (as a term of address to a lover, early 15c.).
Princesse lointaine
"ideal but unattainable woman" (literally "distant princess") is from the play by Rostand (1895) based on troubadour themes.
also from late 14c.

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