A woman employed to teach and supervise children in a private household; an archaic or variant spelling of 'governess'.
From Old French 'gouvernante' (feminine of 'gouvernant'), derived from Latin 'gubernare' (to govern). The '-ess' suffix makes feminine forms of nouns.
The extra '-er' in 'governeress' (versus 'governess') is an archaic variant that shows how English spelling wasn't standardized until quite recently—both forms were used interchangeably!
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