marraine
/maˈrɛn/Now historical
noun
In France during the First World War (1914–18): a local woman who befriends a soldier at the front, giving him moral and material support, as by letters, food parcels, etc. Now historical.
Origin
Early 20th century; earliest use found in Edward Verrall Lucas (1868–1938), essayist and biographer. From French marraine, lit. ‘godmother’ from post-classical Latin matrina, with substitution of the suffix -ana for -ina.
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