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Founder vs Foundress - What's the difference?

founder | foundress |

As nouns the difference between founder and foundress

is that founder is one who founds, establishes, and erects; one who lays a foundation; an author; one from whom something originates; one who endows while foundress is a female founder.

As a verb founder

is of a ship, to fill with water and sink.

founder

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • One who founds, establishes, and erects; one who lays a foundation; an author; one from whom something originates; one who endows.
  • (genetics) Someone for whose parents one has no data.
    • Antonyms
    * (one who founds) ruiner

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The iron worker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
  • * 1957 , H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry , p. 161.
    • The term 'founder' was applied in the British iron industry long afterwards to the ironworker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
  • One who casts metals in various forms; a caster.
    • a founder of cannon, bells, hardware, or printing types

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • Of a ship, to fill with water and sink.
  • * 1719 ,
    • We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but we saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea.
  • To fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse.
  • To disable or lame (a horse) by causing internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs.
  • To fail; to miscarry.
  • * Shakespeare
    • All his tricks founder .

    Usage notes

    Frequently confused with flounder. Both may be applied to the same situation, the difference is the severity of the action: floundering'' (struggling to maintain position) comes first, followed by ''foundering (losing it by falling, sinking or failing).

    Anagrams

    * ----

    foundress

    English

    Noun

    (es)
  • A female founder.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1868, author=George William Erskine Russell, title=Collections and Recollections, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=Miss Sellon, the foundress of English sisterhoods, adopted and brought up in her convent at Devonport a little Irish waif who had been made an orphan by the outbreak of cholera in 1849. }}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1902, author=Charles Johnston, title=Ireland, Historic and Picturesque, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=She was the foundress of a school of religious teaching for women at Kildare, or Killdara, "The Church of the Oak-woods," whose name still records her work. }}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1913, author=John H. Stapleton, title=Explanation of Catholic Morals, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=The method of healing of Jesus Christ and that of the foundress of Christian Science are not one and the same method, although called by the name of faith they appear at first sight to the unwary to be identical. }}
  • *2009 , (Diarmaid MacCulloch), A History of Christianity , Penguin 2010, p. 404:
  • *:Francis's own unlovely tunic, and that of his female colleague Clare, foundress of parallel communities for women, are lovingly preserved and displayed by the nuns of St Clare in Assisi [...].