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meretrix. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
meretrix, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
meretrix in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
meretrix you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin meretrīx.
Noun
meretrix (plural meretrices)
- A prostitute in Ancient Rome.
a. 100 CE, Petronius, translated by W. C. Firebaugh, 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."
1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 72:Hands grasped me like a doll, and as I dandled thus between the meretrices of Abaia, I was lifted from my broad-armed chair in the inn of Saltus; yet still, for perhaps a hundred heartbeats more, I could not rid my mind of the sea and its green-haired women.
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.
Latin
Alternative forms
Etymology
From mereō (“to earn (a living)”) + -trīx (“agent noun suffix”), literally “the earner”.
Pronunciation
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.
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
See also
References
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