meretrix
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin meretrīx.
Noun
meretrix (plural meretrices)
- A prostitute in Ancient Rome.
- a. 100 CE, Petronius, W. C. Firebaugh, transl., Satyricon, published 1922:
- Nomus Marcellus has pointed out the difference between this class of prostitutes and the prostibula. "This is the difference between a meretrix (harlot) and a prostibula (common strumpet): a meretrix is of a more honorable station and calling; for meretrices are so named a merendo (from earning wages) because they plied their calling only by night; prostibulu because they stand before the stabulum (stall) for gain both by day and night."
- 2013, Ariadne Staples, From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins, Routledge, →ISBN:
- Of the two ritually important female categories, matrona and meretrix, it was the matrona that was held at a strict ritual distance. […] The domain of the meretrix was not held at a ritual distance. The boundary between male and female was not quite so stark when the female belonged to the category of prostitute.
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Latin
Alternative forms
- meritrix
- meletrix, meletris, menetrix, menetris (Late Latin, popular, dissimilation, cluster simplification, proscribed)
Etymology
From mereō (“to earn (a living)”) + -trīx (“agent noun suffix”), literally “the earner”.
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈme.re.triːks/, [ˈmɛrɛt̪riːks̠]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈme.re.triks/, [ˈmɛːret̪riks]
Noun
meretrīx f (genitive meretrīcis, masculine meretor); third declension
- a female prostitute or courtesan
Usage notes
This word had a neutral connotation and could be said of high-status prostitutes, never the lowest-status ones.
Declension
Third-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | meretrīx | meretrīcēs |
| Genitive | meretrīcis | meretrīcum |
| Dative | meretrīcī | meretrīcibus |
| Accusative | meretrīcem | meretrīcēs |
| Ablative | meretrīce | meretrīcibus |
| Vocative | meretrīx | meretrīcēs |
Derived terms
- meretrīcābilis
- meretrīciē
- meretrīcius
- meretrīcor
- meretrīcula
Related terms
- merenda
- merendārius
- merendō
- merēns
- mereō
- meritō
- meritōrium
- meritōrius
- meritum
- meritus
Descendants
- Old Lombard: meltris
- Old French: meautris
- Occitan: meltris
- → Old English: myltestre, miltestre
- → Catalan: meretriu
- → English: meretrix
- → Galician: meretriz
- → Italian: meretrice
- → Portuguese: meretriz
- → Sicilian: miritrici
- → Spanish: meretriz
See also
- lēna
References
- “meretrīx” in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
- J. N. Adams (1983), “Words for 'prostitute' in Latin”, in Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, volume 126, issue 3/4, ISSN 0035-449X, page 321–358
Further reading
- “meretrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “meretrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- meretrix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
- “meretrix”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers