Governoress
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A woman employed to educate children in private households. nonstandard
"How are the following nouns improperly formed, and what should they be? viz.—Lifes, knifes, dwarves, mischieves—boxs, churchs, dishs, fishs—enemys, flys, skys, spys—louses, mouses, oxes, pennys—arcanums, datums, erratums, phænomenons—bacheloress, benefactoress, governoress—boys books, girls dolls, childs rattle—diligence sake; Jane’s, Margaret’s, and Isabella’s mother; John’s, Peter’s, and Frank’s books."
- 2 A female governor. dated
"I was introduced by Mrs. Onward, the Governoress, to Mrs. Sapient, the Speakeress of the House."
- 3 The wife of a governor. dated
"Colonel Braddyll, soon after his marriage, was chosen governor of ⸺, in India, and Mrs. Braddyll, as governoress, or governor’s lady, was in the height of her glory."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"How are the following nouns improperly formed, and what should they be? viz.—Lifes, knifes, dwarves, mischieves—boxs, churchs, dishs, fishs—enemys, flys, skys, spys—louses, mouses, oxes, pennys—arcanums, datums, erratums, phænomenons—bacheloress, benefactoress, governoress—boys books, girls dolls, childs rattle—diligence sake; Jane’s, Margaret’s, and Isabella’s mother; John’s, Peter’s, and Frank’s books."
Etymology
Originally from Middle English governeresse, from Old French governeresse. In this form (with -o-; unlike governeress, governer seems to have never been more common than the -o- form) and later uses, directly from governor + -ess.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.