tutor
Noun
Pl. Tutors.
[From OF. tutour or L. tutor watcher, protector, from tueri to watch, guard. Etymological identity with French: tuteur; Spanish: tutor; Italian: tutore.]
Derivatives or conjugates Tutor (verb), tutorage, tutordom, tutorer, tutoress, tutorhood, tutorial, tutoriate, tutorism, tutorize, tutorization, tutorless, tutorly, tutorship, tutory, tutress.
Derivatives from Latin tueri: Tuition, intuition, intuit, intue, intuent, intuitable, intuited, intuitional, intuitionless, intuitive, intuitively, intuitiveness, untutored, untutelar.
1. A guardian, custodian, keeper; a protector, defender. Obs. 2. One who has the legal custody of a ward; spec.: The guardian and representative, and administrator of the estate, of a child or pupil, failing the parents. Semantic-etymological identity:French: tuteur; Italian: tutore; Spanish: tutor.
On the second morning about eleven o'clock, the King himself in person, attended by his nobility, courtiers, and officers, having prepared all their musical instruments, played on them for three hours without intermission, so that I was quite stunned with the noise; neither could I possibly guess the meaning, till my tutor informed me.
J. Swift (Gulliver’s Travels, 1726)
I desired leave of this prince to see the curiosities of the island, which he was graciously pleased to grant, and ordered my tutor to attend me.
J. swift (Gulliver’s Travels, 1726)
Tutor dative, t. nominate, t. optive, t. testamentar.
The guardian with us performs the office both of the tutor and curator of the Roman laws; […] according to the language of the court of chancery, the tutor was the committee of the person, the curator the committee of the estate.
W. Blackstone (Commentaries on the laws of England, 1765) OED
3. One who has been designated for the instruction of another; one having tutorship of another. Specif.:a A private teacher or instructor. b Eng. Univ. A college officer or a graduate (most often the fellow of a college) who supervises the study, discipline, etc., of undergraduates (denominated his pupils) specially assigned to him. c. In U.S. universities and colleges: A teacher subordinate to a professor; a teacher ranking below an instructor.
Some subsist by teaching and practising the law; others teach schools, or are tutors to the sons of rich men. M. Elphinstone (Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, 1815) OED
d. Private tutor (at the English Universities): A person hired by students to assist them in their studies and preparation for the examinations, but not nominated or recognized by the University or College. Also, a person who prepares mercenarily students for professional examinations apart from the universities, as an army tutor, a law tutor.
Although recognised neither by the universities, nor by any particular college, a very numerous class has long existed both at Oxford and Cambridge, who, under the denomination of Private Tutors, superintend and assist the studies of individuals. Encycl. Brit. 1840
6. transf. As the name of an instruction book in any subject. OED.
7. attributively. My tutor days are not satisfactory in the retrospect. Charles K. Paul (Memories, 1899) OED
