A female expositor; a woman who explains or interprets something in detail.
From expositor + -ess (feminine suffix). This follows the older pattern of creating female agent nouns with -ess, similar to actress, waitress, or lioness.
Most -ess words are now considered outdated or sexist—we just say 'expositor' for anyone regardless of gender. But in older texts, expositress shows how every profession had gendered noun pairs.
The '-ess' suffix marks women as a gender-specific variant of the masculine 'expositor,' historically used to note women in intellectual roles as exceptional or secondary.
Avoid this form. Use 'expositor' or better, gender-neutral terms like 'scholar,' 'explicator,' or 'interpreter' for all genders.
["expositor (inclusive)","scholar","explicator","interpreter"]
Women have been vital theological and intellectual expositors whose work was diminished by being marked with gendered suffixes or excluded from canons of 'expositors.'
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