Doyenne

By Deane Barker • • tags: definition •
Updates
This content has been updated 2 times since it was first published. The last update happened .

Definition: the eldest female in a group; a woman who is the senior member, as in age or rank, of a group, class, profession, etc.

This is the feminine version of the more rare “doyen,” which means:

the senior member of a body or group

a person considered to be knowledgeable or uniquely skilled as a result of long experience in some field of endeavor

“Doyen” is Old French for “dean” which vaguely means leader.

Why I Looked It Up

In a book about the Vanderbilt family, I found this caption:

Caroline Astor, the doyenne of Gilded Age New York society.

Update

Added on

From The Constitution of Knowledge:

Rush Limbaugh, the doyen of conservative talk radio…

Update

Added on

From Kingmakers:

Egypt’s policies were really inspired by the Envoy of a foreign state, who in theory is only one – and not even the doyen – of a large number of such Envoys…

Links from this – Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty April 24, 2022
Enormously entertaining history of the Vanderbilt family by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who was a Vanderbilt on his mother’s side. Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt was a self-made man. He started ferrying people on a small boat around New York Harbor and ended up becoming the richest man the world had...
Links from this – The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth September 22, 2022
This is a polemic against misinformation. It was written post-Trump, and Trump informs and motivates a lot of it. The author is retaliating against what he sees as the basic corruption of truth. We’ve arrived at a point in society where we can simply deny any truth that we don’t like and limit...
Links from this – Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East April 21, 2023
I eventually abandoned this book, but I read quite a bit of it. What I came to appreciate is that history of the Middle East and history of the British Empire are wildly intertwined. The British were all over that region, and when they left, they made some attempts to split it up, but then left...