duenna

From Old Spanish duenna or dueña, from Vulgar Latin donna, from Latin domina (“Lady”). Doublet of dame.

• IPA^(key): /duˈɛ.nə/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

duenna (plural duennas)

1. a chaperon of a young lady, usually an older woman.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 193:

     'Madam, I have a secret to tell you.' Now the very word secret is enough to rouse any one's curiosity; and, giving a quick glance round to see if her duennas were on the alert, she prepared to listen, and I saw that her eye had caught sight of the letter.

   • 1949, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces:

     Then he placed her in a house and shut her up in a chamber, appointing ten old women as duennas to guard her, and forbade her to go forth to the Seven Palaces.

2. a governess or nanny.

• undean