a woman who guards or defends someone or something; protector
Word origin
[1560–70; protect(o)r + -ess]This word is first recorded in the period 1560–70. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: bulb, cylinder, propagate, ritual, sector-ess is a suffix forming distinctively feminine nouns. Other words that use the affix-ess include: canoness, monitress, peeress, preceptress, stewardess