tutelary

comparative more tutelary · superlative most tutelary · alternative obsolete tutelarie

1. Relating to guardianship or protection.

   When a minor is involved, tutelary powers frequently accompany powers of attorney.

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   [I]n the firſt of Henry the ſixth, the Company of Armorers in London were incorporated by the name of the fraternite of Saint George: which queſtionleſſe reflected on him, though not as Patron ſpecially of this Realme of England, yet as the tutelarie Saint of militarie men. Elſe to what purpose ſhould the Armorers, whoſe trade is onely deſtinate to the uſe of Souldiers, be made a Corporation by his name, and under his protection.

   1633, Peter Heylyn [i.e., Heylin], The Historie of that Most Famous Saint and Souldier of Christ Iesvs; St. George of Cappadocia: Asserted from the Fictions, of the Middle Ages of the Chvrch and Opposition of the Present. The Institution of the Most Noble Order of S. George, Named the Garter. A Catalogue of All the Knights thereof, from the First Institution, to this Present: As also of the Principall Officers thereunto Belonging, 2nd corrected and enlarged edition, London: Printed by Thomas Harper, for Henry Seyle [i.e., Seile] and are to be sold at his Shop, the signe of the Tygers-head in Saint Pauls Church-yard, →OCLC, page 303

   The iſland [of Lemnos] was conſecrated to Vulcan, whom the inhabitants worſhiped as their tutelary god. They were believed to have been the firſt blackſmiths, which gave the poets the occaſion to feign, that Vulcan, when he was thrown down from heaven, fell in the iſland of Lemnos, where he built his forge.

   1747, “Book II. Chap. I. Of the Islands of Sicily, Crete, Samos, Rhodes, &c. to Their Becoming Subject to the Romans”, in An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time. Compiled from Original Authors; and Illustrated with Maps, Cuts, Notes, &c. With a General Index to the Whole, volume VIII, London: Printed for T[homas] Osborne, in Gray's-Inn; A[ndrew] Millar, in the Strand; and J. Osborn, in Pater-noster Row, →OCLC, page 345, footnote (C)

   In our Athenian constitution, if we are weakly governed or capriciously, which hardly can happen, the mischief is transitory and reparable; one year closes it; and the people, both for its satisfaction and its admonition, sees that no corruption, no transgression, in its magistrates, is unregarded or unchastized. This, of all advantages, is the greatest, the most corroborative of power, the most tutelary of morals.

   1824, Walter Savage Landor, “Demosthenes and Eubulides”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume I, London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 93, Fleet-Street, and 13, Waterloo-Place, Pall Mall, →OCLC, page 237

   Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions: they want to be led, and they wish to be free. As they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all-powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite: they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians.

   1840, Alexis de Tocqueville; Henry Reeve, transl., “What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear [book IV, chapter VI]”, in Democracy in America. Part the Second, the Social Influence of Democracy, volume II, London: Saunders & Otley, OCLC 557772461; republished as Phillip Bradley, editor, Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville: The Henry Reeve Text as Revised by Francis Bowen Now Further Corrected and Edited with Introduction, Editorial Notes, and Bibliographies by Phillips Bradley, volume II, 1st Borzoi edition, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945, OCLC 916442432, page 319

   [T]he goat-herd lived / As calmly, underneath the pleasant brows / Of cool Lucretilis, where the pipe was heard / Of Pan, Invisible God, thrilling the rocks / With tutelary music, from all harm / The fold protecting.

   1850, William Wordsworth, “Book Eighth. Retrospect.—Love of Nature Leading to Love of Man.”, in The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet's Mind: An Autobiographical Poem, London: Edward Moxon, OCLC 1405711; republished as The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, authorized edition, London: Edward Moxon, Son, and Co., 44 Dover Street, Piccadilly, 1869, OCLC 727050730, page 491

2. Of or pertaining to a guardian.

   My uncle is always happy to discharge his tutelary responsibilities towards me.

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   [T]he Duke withdrew him to Roan, and from thence to the King of France, to craue his aid, putting him in minde of, the faithfull ſeruice his father had done him: how he was his homager, vnder his tutelarie charge, and had no other ſanctuary of ſuccour to flie vnto, in this caſe of his mutinous and turbulent nobilitie; the effect whereof was of dangerous conſequence to that Crowne.

   1612, Samuel Danyel [i.e., Daniel], “The Second Booke of the Historie of England: The Life of William I”, in The First Part of the Historie of England, London: […] Nicholas Okes, […], →OCLC, page 84

   At St. Regis' Amory stayed three days and took his exams with a scoffing confidence, then doubling back to New York to pay his tutelary visit. […] [Monsignor Darcy] and Amory took to each other at first sight—the jovial, impressive prelate who could dazzle an embassy ball, and the green-eyed, intent youth, in his first long trousers, accepted in their own minds a relation of father and son within a half-hour's conversation.

   1920, F[rancis] Scott [Key] Fitzgerald, “Amory, Son of Beatrice [book I, chapter I]”, in This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, →OCLC

   As we were deep in the Shan country, there were no more pagodas, but shrines had been erected on the town's outskirts to the tutelary spirits, and some of them were hung with votive offerings of puppet-horses.

   1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth

3. Having the qualities of a tutor.

   She loved him so passionately, and he was so godlike in her eyes; and being, though untrained, instinctively refined, her nature cried for his tutelary guidance. And thus, though Tess kept repeating to herself, 'I can never be his wife,' the words were vain.

   1891, Thomas Hardy, “Chapter XXIX”, in Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman: Faithfully Presented by Thomas Hardy in Three Volumes, volume II, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., 45 Albemarle Street, →OCLC, pages 104–105

plural tutelaries · alternative obsolete tutelarie

1. lifestyleA deity or spirit serving as a guardian or protector of a place, person, culture, etc.; a tutelar, a tutelary deity.

   Thus, various Amerind tribes are devoted to foot-racing; yet the races are not tests of swiftness so much as divinatory or invocatory acts designed to appeal to tutelaries, and are usually set by seasons for planting or harvesting or hunting.

   1906, Daniel Coit Gilman, Harry Thurston Peck, Frank Moore Colby, editors, The New International Encyclopedia, volume XII, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, →OCLC, page 766

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   The qualifications demanded in a tutelary are activity combined with power over the minor malignant devils. Thus most of the superior celestial Buddhas and Bodhisats may be, and are, tutelaries. But the favourite ones are the great demon-kings, […]

   1895, L[aurence] Austine Waddell, “Pantheon and Images”, in The Buddhism of Tibet: or Lamaism, with its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology, and in its Relation to Indian Buddhism, London: W. H. Allen & Co., →OCLC, page 361

   A tutelary is not a special sort of spirit or shrine; the word refers either to a clan shrine, which is theoretically the same for all members, or to the specific shrine or ancestor indicated by a diviner as being a man's own guardian spirit. Each individual has such a tutelary, but will not be aware of its name unless a diviner has been consulted.

   1962, Jack Goody, Death, Property and the Ancestors: A Study of the Mortuary Customs of the LoDagaa of West Africa, London: Tavistock Publications, OCLC 8211112; republished as Death, Property and the Ancestors: A Study of the Mortuary Customs of the Lodagaa of West Africa, London: Routledge, 2004, ISBN 978-0-415-32984-2, page 210

   To abate cold weather, the aid of tutelaries such as West Wind, Rain, and Thunder was invoked. Appropriate tutelaries might, upon appeal, bring snow upon enemies. During the Modoc War, a shaman acted to bring down the shielding fog against the army's advance.

   1998, David H[eath] French, Kathrine S[tory] French, “Wasco, Wishram, and Cascades”, in Deward E. Walker, Jr., editor, Plateau (Handbook of North American Indians; 12), Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, →ISBN, page 460

   Synonyms: tutelar, tutelary deity