protégée

Borrowed from French protégée.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒtəʒeɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹoʊtəʒeɪ/
• or as in French
• Hyphenation: pro‧té‧gée

protégée (plural protégées)

1. A female protégé.
   • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter IV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 81:

     The Admiral delighted in the boy, Mrs. Crawford doted on the girl; and it was the lady's death which now obliged her protegée, after some months' further trial at her uncle's house, to find another home.

   • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 8:

     “No, Cynthia is a protégée of my mother’s, the daughter of an old schoolfellow of hers, who married a rascally solicitor. He came a cropper, and the girl was left an orphan and penniless. My mother came to the rescue, and Cynthia has been with us nearly two years now.”

   • 2009 January 31, “Rachida Dati: why was she fired?”, in The Week, number 700, page 21:

     Though formerly a protégée and friend of [Nicolas] Sarkozy, [Rachida] Dati has fallen from grace in the past year, said John Lichfield in The Independent.

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔ.te.ʒe/

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protégée f sg

1. feminine singular of protégé

• “protégée”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.