[f. CANON2 + -ESS; cf. F. chanoinesse, in 16th c. also canoniesse; in med.L. canonica and canonissa.]
1. Eccl. Hist. A member of a college or community of women living under a rule, but not under a perpetual vow; hence, a woman holding a prebend or canonry in a female chapter. (The Augustinian Canonesses are now practically an order of nuns.)
1682. News fr. France, 36. The Nuns, or Regular Canonesses of the Blessed Virgin of the Nunnery of Charron.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 140. There are also in Popish Countries, women which they call Secular Canonesses living after the Example of Secular Canons.
1772. Pennant, Tours Scotl. (1774), 246. The nunnery, filled with the canonesses of St. Augustine.
1844. Marg. Fuller, Wom. in 19th C. (1862), 97. She may be one of the lay sisters of charity, a canoness bound by an inward vow.
1885. Dict. Nat. Biog., I. 216/2. Louisa was appointed at the age of seventeen a canoness of Mons, then the wealthiest … chapter in the Austrian Netherlands.
2. humorous. The wife of a canon.
1873. Adv. Protestant, 213. There was … the canons, canonesses and minor canons.
