Definition of "governante"

governante

noun
plural governantes
1. (obsolete) A female ruler or regent.
2. (archaic) A woman in charge of someone else, especially a child or young woman; a governess.
  Quotations
  When it came to his turn to mention Sir John Sparkle, he represented him as a man of an immense estate and narrow disposition, who mewed up his only child, a fine young lady, from the conversation of mankind, under the strict watch and inspection of an old governante […] .
  1748, Tobias Smollett, chapter 50, in The Adventures of Roderick Random
  Shortly after the failure of the singular negotiation for attaining peace by combat, which Peveril had attempted to open with Major Bridgenorth, that gentleman left his seat of Moultrassie-Hall in the care of his old housekeeper, and departed, no one knew whither, having in company with him the Reverend Master Solsgrace, with his daughter Alice and Mrs. Deborah Debbitch, now formally installed in all the duties of a gouvernante.
  1822, [Walter Scott], chapter X, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., page 227