Word of the day: tutelary

The word of the day is tutelary:

1. having the position of guardian or protector of a person, place, or thing: tutelary saint.
2. of or pertaining to a guardian or guardianship.

1611, from L. tutelarius "a guardian," from tutela "protection, watching" (see tutor).

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tutelary)

"After the formation of the Triple Alliance, Tlacaélel 'went about persuading the people,' as one Mexica historian wrote, that Huitzilopochtli was not a mere tutelary deity, but a divinity essential to the fate of humankind."

 - Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus