Hester

Revision History

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4/5/2022, 10:13 PM Mike C update #112
11/16/2019, 11:04 AM Mike C update #105
2/28/2019, 2:08 PM Mike C update #102
2/12/2007, 1:03 AM Mike C earliest recorded revision

Gender Feminine
Usage English, Dutch, Biblical Latin
Pronounced Pron. HEHS-tər(English, Dutch)

Meaning & History

Latin form of Esther. Like Esther, it has been used in England since the Protestant Reformation. Nathaniel Hawthorne used it for the heroine of his novel The Scarlet Letter (1850), Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman forced to wear a red letter A on her chest after giving birth to a child out of wedlock.