Dictionary

friaress en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English freresse; equivalent to friar + -ess. Piecewise doublet of fratress.

Meanings

1. A female friar.
   • There were friaresses in Europe, but the Church was very uncomfortable with them. 2018, Ingrid Barton, The Little History of Yorkshire, The History Press, →ISBN:
   • Similar letters to the bishop of Salamanca and bishops in Italy indicate the existence of a movement of wandering friaresses on an international scale. 1996, Jo Ann Kay McNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millennia, Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 310:
   • He put upon his friars and friaresses obligations which proclaimed openly and fearlessly a direct and radical social regeneration. 1899, The Messenger of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, page 1182:

Forms