Sunday Word: Tutelary

[sallymn]

tutelary [toot-l-er-ee, tyoot-]

adjective:
1 having the position of guardian or protector of a person, place, or thing
2 of or relating to a guardian or guardianship

noun:
a person who has tutelary powers, as a saint, deity, or guardian

Examples:

Tavernier’s presence was indispensable: I have a photograph of a raucous dinner hosted by Thierry Frémaux with Benicio del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón, and Tavernier is an impish, grinning figure to be glimpsed in the mirror, loved by everyone there, a sprightly tutelary deity. (Peter Bradshaw, Bertrand Tavernier: a flesh-and-blood lion of French cinema, The Guardian, March 2021)

Even among the eccentric annals of poets who talked to God, angels, tutelary spirits, and disincorporated souls, Fernando Pessoa is a special case. (Anahid Nersessian, The Escape Artist, The New York Review of Books, October 2021)

The system which used to rule over the Turkish state since the 1960s was a 'tutelary system' - one in which the civilian and military bureaucratic elites, the high courts, and the office of the presidency held the real power. (Kadir Ustun, Turkey’s June 24 elections are about stability, Al Jazeera, June 2018)

Thus, then, one of our own noble stamp, even a whaleman, is the tutelary guardian of England; and by good rights, we harpooneers of Nantucket should be enrolled in the most noble order of St George. (Herman Melville, Moby Dick)

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. (Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles)

Origin:

'having guardianship or charge of, protecting' (someone or something); 'pertaining to a protector or guardian,' 1610s, from Late Latin tutelarius 'a guardian,' from Latin tutela 'protection, watching' (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Tutelary derives from the Latin noun tutelarius, meaning 'guardian.' Tutelarius, in turn, was formed by combining the word tutela ('protection' or 'guardian') and -arius, a suffix that implies belonging and connection. A more familiar descendant of tutela in English might be tutelage, which initially referred to guardianship or protection, but came to be used to refer to teaching or influence. If you suspect that tutor is also related, you are correct. (Merriam-Webster)