Forms: 5 barnesse, baronys, -es, -esse, baronnesse, 6– baroness. [a. OF. barnesse, -onnesse, in med.L. baronissa: see BARON and -ESS.] a. The wife of a baron. b. A lady holding a baronial title ‘in her own right.’

1

c. 1420.  Chron. Vilod., 116. Bothe erlys and barnesse and ladyes clere.

2

c. 1420.  in Wright, Voc., 194/2. Baronissa, baronys.

3

1483.  Caxton, G. de la Tour, I v b. The example of a baronnesse or wyf of a baron.

4

1529.  Act 21 Hen. VIII., xiii. § 28. Any Duchess, Marquess, Countess, Viscountess, or Baroness.

5

1695.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3059/1. Assistants of the Chief Mourner were two Dutchesses, twelve Countesses, and four Baronesses.

6

1822.  Byron, Werner, IV. i. 65. He is to espouse the gentle Baroness.

7

1884.  Harper’s Mag., July, 260/2. A baroness in her own right.

8