E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Duen’na [Lady].
The female of don. The Spanish don is derived from the Latin dominus = a lord, a master. A duenna is the chief lady-in-waiting on the Queen of Spain; but in common parlance it means a lady who is half companion and half governess, in charge of the younger female members of a nobleman’s or gentleman’s family in Portugal or Spain.
1
“There is no duenna so rigidly prudent and inexorably decorous as a superannuated coquette.”—W. Irving: Sketch-Book (Spectre Bridegroom).
