friaress

English

Etymology

From Middle English freresse; equivalent to friar +‎ -ess.

Noun

friaress (plural friaresses)

1. A female friar.
   • 1899, The Messenger of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, page 1182:

     He put upon his friars and friaresses obligations which proclaimed openly and fearlessly a direct and radical social regeneration.

   • 1996, Jo Ann Kay McNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millennia, Cambridge, Mass., London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 310:

     Similar letters to the bishop of Salamanca and bishops in Italy indicate the existence of a movement of wandering friaresses on an international scale.

   • 2018, Ingrid Barton, The Little History of Yorkshire, The History Press, →ISBN:

     There were friaresses in Europe, but the Church was very uncomfortable with them.