duchesse
noun/duːˈʃɛs/
Etymology From French duchesse. Doublet of duchess.
1
A French duchess.
- Ary Scheffer, the drawing-master of the young Orleans princesses, offered to go with Thiers and procure him an audience of the duc or duchesse, or Madame Adélaïde.1877 December 15, Emily Crawford, “M. Thiers: A Sketch from Life”, in Littell’s Living Age, volume CXXXV / fifth series, volume XX, number 1748, Boston, Mass.: Littell and Gay, page 679, column 2:
- “[T]hat little violet [La Vallière], who hid herself in the grass, and was ashamed of being a mistress, a mother, and a duchesse; that will never be the model.”—Mme de Sévigné.1888, Augustus J[ohn] C[uthbert] Hare, Days Near Paris, New York, N.Y.; London; Glasgow: George Routledge and Sons, page 257:
2 more examples
- Among the guests are Léon Bourgeois, president of the Chamber of Deputies, the Italian, German and Russian ambassadors, comtesse Greffulhe, the grande-duchesse Vladimir with comtesse Adhéaume de Chevigné, several comtes, comtesses, ducs and duchesses, […]1990, Ronald Hayman, “For Le Figaro”, in Proust: A Biography, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section III (1896–1905 Breakfast at Night), page 179:
- She was the eighth child of the duc and duchesse of Enghien and, as a member of the reigning Bourbon house, was styled a princesse du sang, or princess of the blood.2022, Belinda Scerri, “‘Instructing herself by fad or fancy’: Depictions and Fictions of Connoisseuses and Femmes Savantes in Eighteenth-Century Paris”, in Beatrijs Vanacker, Lieke van Deinsen, editors, Portraits and Poses: Female Intellectual Authority, Agency and Authorship in Early Modern Europe, Leuven: Leuven University Press, →ISBN, part II (Types and Models of Female Intellectual Authority), page 187:
2
A type of dressing table with a swing glass.
- One morning, during my first week at school, I sneaked into Mum and Dad's bedroom, opened the top drawer of the duchesse, where the coins ‘brought back from the war’ were kept, and helped myself to a handful.1982, Janet Frame, An Angel at my Table, Virago, published 2024, page 22:
3
Abbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of duchesse lace.
- Related terms
- grande-duchesse