donness

English

Alternative forms

• doness

Etymology

From don +‎ -ess.

Noun

donness (plural donnesses)

1. A female don.
   • 1866, Mark Lemon, Falkner Lyle, Or the Story of Two Wives, volume II, London: Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, page 266:

     Tom—to use one of his own expressions—shook his feathers and pulled himself together when Philip came in, and, smoking away in earnest, seemed to take the greatest possible interest in the rector's recollections of the dean's dinner and the after "evening," at which Ethel came out so very brilliantly, that she extinguished all the Deanesses and Donesses, or whatever the helpmates of the solemn old pumps who frequent cathedral towns are called. We are quoting Tom's words.

   • 1941 September 17, Mavis Batey, quoting Dilly Knox, Dilly: The Man Who Broke Enigmas, London: Biteback Publishing, published 2010, →ISBN, page 135:

     'She [Mary Lobel] is a very nice and remarkable woman of the donness class,' Dilly told [Alastair] Denniston.

References

• “donness, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.