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From Middle Englishfounderess, founderesse, foundress(“female founder or builder of a city; female founder or benefactor of a religious house; (figuratively) female inventor or originator; (figuratively) a source”);[1] from founder, foundere, foundour(“founder or builder of a building, city, country, etc.; builder or endower of a church, college, monastery, etc.; benefactor or patron of such an institution; charter member of a guild; first head of a religious organization; inventor, originator; (figuratively) earliest of a class of people; (figuratively) a source”)[2] + -esse(“suffix forming female forms of words”).[3]Foundour is derived from Anglo-Normanfundur, Old Frenchfondeor, fondeur(“creator, instigator, founder”) (modern Frenchfondeur), from Latinfundātor(“founder”)(rare), from fundō(“to make by smelting, found”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰewd-(“to pour”)) + -tor(suffix forming masculineagent nouns). The English word is analysable as founder + -ess(suffix forming female forms of words).[4]
But whether he departed without the French kings conſent or diſaſſent, he deceiued in his expectacion, and in maner in diſpaire, retourned againe to the Lady Margaret his firſt fooliſh foundreſſe.
1602, William Warner, “The Fourth Booke. Chapter XX.”, in Albions England. A Continued Historie of the Same Kingdome, from the Originals of the First Inhabitants thereof:, 5th edition, London: Edm Bollifant for George Potter,, →OCLC, page 94:
Forgetfull of himſelfe, his bearth, his Country, friends, and all, / And onely minding (vvhom he miſt) the Foundreſſe of his thrall.
He humbly louted in meeke lovvlineſſe, / And ſeemely vvelcome for her did prepare: / For of their order ſhe vvas Patroneſſe, / Albe Chariſſa vvere their chiefeſt foundereſſe.
1689, [Pierre] Jurieu, “An Article of Controversie. Reflections on a Writing Newly Sent to the Churches of France. A Continuation of the Matter Concerning the Unity of the Church.”, in , transl., The Pastoral Letters of the Incomparable Jurieu, Directed to the Protestants in France Groaning under the Babylonish Tyranny, Translated:, London: T. Fabian,; and J. Hindmarsh, →OCLC, page 144:
This VVoman conceiving there vvas not already Sects enough amongſt Chriſtians, had it in her Head to make another. And moreover, Perſons of her Sex having not been accuſtomed to be Foundreſſes of Religions, ſhe thought that hers vvould make her conſiderable in the VVorld by the ſingularity of its Original.
c.1691 (date written), John Dryden, “Eleonora: A Panegyrical Poem, Dedicated to the Memory of the Late Countess of Abingdon”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden,, volume II, London: J and R Tonson,, published 1760, →OCLC, page 233:
For zeal like her's her ſervants vvere too ſlovv; / She vvas the firſt, vvhere need requir'd, to go; / Herſelf the foundreſs and attendant too.
1766, “PEMBROKE, (Mary Sidney, countess of)”, in Biographium Fæmineum. The Female Worthies: Or, Memoirs of the Most Illustrious Ladies, of All Ages and Nations,, volume II, London: S. Crowder,, →OCLC, page 191:
[I]f he had been acquainted vvith the names of the many foundreſſes and benefactreſſes in our tvvo univerſities, he vvould not have advanced ſo great an untruth.
1859, H M Carey, Matilda of Normandy. A Poetical Tribute to the Imperial Academy of Caen, London: Saunders & Otley,, →OCLC, page 70:
[I]n death repose, / For her, the founderess of the shrine, / That holocaust to wrath divine, / Not only error to atone, / But grateful homage for a throne!— […]
She [Anne Geneviève de Bourbon] was one of the early founderesses of those literary gatherings which attained such renown in the Hôtel de Rambouillet, and lavished her bounties freely among a crew of poetasters, whom she naïvely thought sublime.
Miss Sellon, the foundress of English sisterhoods, adopted and brought up in her convent at Devonport a little Irish waif who had been made an orphan by the outbreak of cholera in 1849.
1902, Charles Johnston, “The Saints and Scholars. a.d. 493–750.”, in Ireland Historic and Picturesque, Philadelphia, Pa.: Henry T. Coates & Co., →OCLC, page 210:
Saint Brigid is one of the great figures in the epoch immediately succeeding the first coming of the Word. She was the foundress of a school of religious teaching for women at Kildare, or Killdara, "The Church of the Oak-woods," whose name still records her work.
1904, John H Stapleton, “Christian Science”, in Moral Briefs. A Concise, Reasoned and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals, New York, N.Y., Cincinnati, Oh.: Benziger Brothers,, →OCLC, page 125:
The method of healing of Jesus Christ and that of the foundress of Christian Science [Mary Baker Eddy] are not one and the same method, although called by the name of faith they appear at first sight to the unwary to be identical.
Where is our highly honourworthy salutable spouse-founderess?
1991, Minoru Kiyota, “Japan’s New Religions (1945–65): Secularization or Spiritualization?”, in Leslie S. Kawamura, editor, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism (SR Supplements; 10), Waterloo, Ont.: [F]or the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion by Wilfrid Laurier University Press, →ISBN, page 203:
Their doctrines are eclectic and simple and, unlike the ministers of established schools, the founders (or more frequently the founderesses) make claim to unusual spiritual power in divination, sorcery, and faith healing.
Francis [of Assisi]'s own unlovely tunic, and that of his female colleague Clare, foundress of parallel communities for women, are lovingly preserved and displayed by the nuns of St Clare in Assisi, so amid the stateliness and beauty of Clare's thirteenth-century basilica, there is a perpetual reminder of what it means to live like the destitute.
1987, Michael J. Wade, Felix J. Breden, “Kin Selection in Complex Groups: Mating Structure, Migration Structure, and the Evolution of Social Behaviors”, in B. Diane Chepko-Sade, Zuleyma Tang Halpin, editors, Mammalian Dispersal Patterns: The Effect of Social Structure on Population Genetics, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, part V (Mathematical Models of Population Structure), page 281:
[T]he comparison of multiple inseminations and multiple foundress associations showed that the number of foundresses, a component of migration structure, affects the potential for social evolution more strongly than the number of inseminations per foundress, a component of the mating structure.
1991, Peter-Frank Röseler, “Reproductive Competition during Colony Establishment”, in Kenneth G. Ross, Robert W. Matthews, editors, The Social Biology of Wasps, Ithaca, N.Y., London: Comstock Publishing Associates, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, figure 9.4 caption, page 329:
When two [European paper wasp] foundresses meet at the nest site after hibernation, the foundress with the higher corpus allatum activity usually becomes dominant.
2021, Michael Taborsky, Michael A. Cant, Jan Komdeur, “Conflict”, in The Evolution of Social Behaviour, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 131, column 1:
Like many vertebrate cooperative breeders, foundress associations of paper wasps are composed of individuals of varying relatedness (typically full sisters, cousins, and unrelated individuals;[…]), […] However there is also very clear helping behaviour: subordinate foundresses hunt for caterpillars and other insect food to provision the offspring of the dominant female.