provostessn.
/prɒvəˈstɛs/, /ˈprɒvəstᵻs/, U.S. /ˈproʊˌvoʊstəs/, /ˈproʊvəstəs/ rare.
A female provost; (also) the wife of a provost.In quots. 1871, 1905 applied to the prioress of a (Protestant) conventual foundation.
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society > faith > church government > monasticism > religious superior > conventual head > [noun] > female
presidentress1650
Reverend Mother1658
superioress1669
provostess1871
Mother Superior1907
Mother Vicaress1930
Mother Prioress1961
Sister Superior1991
1871 Mrs. G. Horrocks tr. W. Menzel Hist. Germany III. 17 She was intriguing, and busied herself, as her Memoirs show, with money matters. She became provostess of Quedlinburg.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 20 Mar. 2/1 The dismantled apartments are hung with the portraits of the Abbesses since the Reformation... One looks, instinctively, for Aurora von Königsmark; and she, having been only provostess, is missing.
1910 T. Johnston in Forward 12 Nov. 5/4 [Women] will teach from pulpits, sway the world from Downing Street, edit the Times,..become occasionally Provostess of Glasgow, design the newest flying machine.
1983 M. Cox M.R. James xiii. 164 [When James was appointed Provost of King's College. Cambridge] Henry Yates Thompson told him, ‘You will have to get a Provostess. That's flat.’
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1871