[mod. Fr. abbé:—OFr. abe, abet:—L. abbāt-em; see ABBOT.] The French title answering to Eng. abbot, but extended to ‘every one who wears an ecclesiastical dress,’ Littré; and specially applied to one having no assigned ecclesiastical duty, but acting as a professor, private tutor, or master of a household; in which sense the word is simply transferred into Eng. instead of being translated. Thus, ‘Anselm, abbot of Bec,’ ‘the Abbé Montmorency.’ Cf. Ital. ABBATE.
1780. Cowper, Prog. Error, 385. Ere long some bowing, smirking, smart Abbé Remarks two loiterers that have lost their way.
