foundress

English
WOTD – 8 March 2023

Pronunciation
After Jusepe de Ribera, Santa Teresa de Jesús (Saint Teresa of Jesus, 17th century).[n 1] Teresa of Ávila was a foundress (etymology 1, sense 1) of the Discalced Carmelites, a Roman Catholic monastic order, together with John of the Cross as co-founder in the 16th century.
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfaʊndɹəs/, /-ɪs/, /faʊnˈdɹɛs/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈfaʊndɹəs/
  • Rhymes: (one RP pronunciation) -ɛs
  • Hyphenation: foundr‧ess

Etymology 1

From Middle English founderess, founderesse (“female founder or builder of a city; female founder or benefactor of a religious house; (figuratively) female inventor or originator; (figuratively) a source”) [and other forms];[1] from foundour (“founder or builder of a building, city, country, etc.; builder or endower of a church, college, monastery, etc.; benefactor or patron of such an institution; charter member of a guild; first head of a religious organization; inventor, originator; (figuratively) earliest of a class of people; (figuratively) a source”)[2] + -esse (“suffix forming female forms of words”).[3] Foundour is derived from Anglo-Norman fundur, Old French fondeor, fondeur (“creator, instigator, founder”) (modern French fondeur), from Latin fundātor (“founder”) (rare), from fundō (“to make by smelting, found”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰewd- (“to pour”)) + -tor (suffix forming masculine agent nouns). The English words is analysable as founder +‎ -ess (suffix forming female forms of words).[4]

Noun

foundress (plural foundresses)

  1. (dated) A female founder (“one who founds or establishes”).
    • 1868, George William Erskine Russell, Collections and Recollections‎:
      Miss Sellon, the foundress of English sisterhoods, adopted and brought up in her convent at Devonport a little Irish waif who had been made an orphan by the outbreak of cholera in 1849.
    • 1902, Charles Johnston, Ireland, Historic and Picturesque‎:
      She was the foundress of a school of religious teaching for women at Kildare, or Killdara, "The Church of the Oak-woods," whose name still records her work.
    • 1913, John H. Stapleton, Explanation of Catholic Morals‎:
      The method of healing of Jesus Christ and that of the foundress of Christian Science are not one and the same method, although called by the name of faith they appear at first sight to the unwary to be identical.
    • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 404:
      Francis's own unlovely tunic, and that of his female colleague Clare, foundress of parallel communities for women, are lovingly preserved and displayed by the nuns of St Clare in Assisi [...].
  2. (zoology, specifically) A female animal which establishes a colony.
Alternative forms
Translations

Etymology 2

From founder +‎ -ess (suffix forming female forms of words).[5] Founder is derived from Middle French fondeur (“owner of a foundry; ironworker in charge of smelting, founder”) (modern French fondeur), from Latin fundātor (“founder”) (rare): see further at etymology 1.

Noun

foundress (plural foundresses)

  1. (metallurgy, obsolete, rare) A female founder (“one who founds or casts metals”).

Notes
  1. From the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.

References
  1. “fǒunderess(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. “fǒundǒur, -ur, n.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. “-esse, suf.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. “foundress, n.1”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “foundress, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  5. “foundress, n.2”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2021.

Further reading
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