A female person who contends, competes, or argues; a woman engaged in a struggle or contest.
From 'contend' plus the -ress suffix, which historically created feminine forms of nouns (like 'actor/actress'). The suffix comes from Old French and Latin -trix.
The -ress suffix is becoming rare in modern English, but it reminds us of how language used to always mark gender—a contendress was the standard way to say a woman was competing, though today we'd just say 'contender.'
Gendered noun suffix -ess marks female disputants as exceptional variants of the unmarked male form 'contender,' reinforcing males as the default. This pattern persists across agent/actor nouns.
Use 'contender' for all genders. The -ess suffix is archaic and unnecessarily genders competitive roles.
["contender","opponent","disputant"]
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