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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--dictatress This week's theme: unusual words used in famous quotations. dictatress (dik-TAY-tres) noun A female dictator. [From Latin dictator, from dictare (to dictate), frequentative of dicere (to say). Ultimately from the Indo-European root deik- (to show, to pronounce solemnly) that is also the source of other words such as judge, verdict, vendetta, revenge, indicate, dictate, and paradigm.] "America ... might become dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit." John Quincy Adams; Address; Jul 4, 1821; quoted in The Yale Book of Quotations. X-Bonus The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist." -Maria Montessori, educator (1870-1952)

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