Baron(ess/et)
Posted by The Mysterious H.C. on December 29, 1997 at 02:45:30:
In response to Barons..., written by Emmy on December 29, 1997 at 02:21:54
A "Baroness" is the wife of a Baron (or a woman who has inherited a barony "in her own right"), while a baronetcy is a completely separate and lower aristocratic rank (really a hereditary knighthood; Baronets don't sit in the House of Lords). Women can't inherit the title of Baronet (except for a few baronetcies created in Scotland before 1707), and there is no special word for a Baronet's wife(though she does get the honorific "Lady" before her last named, as explained in the aristocratic honorifics file. The word "baronette" doesn't really exist (it was very occasionally used for comic effect by a writer who wanted to be facetious, but has no meaning in the regular terminology of aristocratic titles).
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