emerita

adj

1. (feminine, form-of, singular)feminine singular of emeritus (“(often postpositive) retired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title”)

noun

1. A female person who is retired from active service or an occupation, especially one who retains an honorific version of a previous title.

   “And the older women faculty, the emeritae lived around the college and you talked to them and you heard it ... you know, they were just devoted to that place body and soul, and they didn’t care if they made two bent nickels a year, […]”

   “With the help of ever-present chief elder Charlotte McGuire and our headquarters, an updated list of all Board members was developed. Twenty-eight persons who are now emeritae were named.”

   “In 1939, when I arrived, women made up a slight majority of the Smith faculty. The oldest of the emeritae were such relics as Elizabeth Hanscomb, who had taught one of the first American literature courses in the country some time in the 1890s.”

   “Although by no means a card-carrying feminist—and who was in those days, besides some shapeless, tweedy, old left-over suffragettes among the emeritae?—I knew from that time onward that I was not going to be one of those model domestic women.”

2. (form-of, plural)plural of emeritum