mediatrix

English

Etymology

From Late Latin mediātrīx, feminine of mediātor.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmiːdɪətɹɪks/

Noun

mediatrix (plural mediatrices or mediatrixes)

1. A female mediator.

   Synonym: brokeress

   • 1598, Robert Tofte, “The Third Part of the Moneths Mind of a Melancholy Lover.”, in Alba. The Month's Minde of a Melancholy Lover.‎^[1] (Poetry), published 1880, →OCLC, page 106:

     My lifes Cataſtrophe is at an end, / The Staffe whereon my ſickly Loue did leane / And which from falling (ſtill) did him defend, / Is through miſchance in ſunder broken cleane. / Gone is my Mediatrix, my beſt Aduocate, / Who vſde for me to interceſsionate.

   • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, I.i.11:

     He promised, however, to speak to Mr. Harrel upon the subject, but the promise was evidently given to oblige the fair mediatrix, without any hope of advantage to the cause.

2. (geometry) The line that is perpendicular to a line segment and intersects the line segment at its midpoint.
   • 2000, Jean H. Gallier, Curves and surfaces in geometric modeling, page 105:

     […] the intersection of the normal at M to the parabola with the mediatrix of the line […]

Synonyms

• (female mediator): mediatress

Latin

Etymology

Post-classical Latin mediātor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /me.diˈaː.triːks/, [mɛd̪iˈäːt̪riːks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /me.diˈa.triks/, [med̪iˈäːt̪riks]

Noun

mediātrīx f (genitive mediātrīcis, masculine mediātor); third declension

1. (Late Latin) mediator, intermediary, go-between (female)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mediātrīx	mediātrīcēs
Genitive	mediātrīcis	mediātrīcum
Dative	mediātrīcī	mediātrīcibus
Accusative	mediātrīcem	mediātrīcēs
Ablative	mediātrīce	mediātrīcibus
Vocative	mediātrīx	mediātrīcēs

Related terms

• mediator

References

• “mediatrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• mediatrix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.