meretrix

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English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin meretrīx.

Noun

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meretrix (plural meretrices)

  1. A prostitute in Ancient Rome.
    • a. 100 CE, Petronius, translated by W. C. Firebaugh, Satyricon[1], 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[2], 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

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From mereō (to earn (a living)) +‎ -trīx (agent noun suffix), literally the earner.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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meretrīx f (genitive meretrīcis, masculine meretor); third declension

  1. a female prostitute or courtesan

Usage notes

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This word had a neutral connotation and could be said of high-status prostitutes, never the lowest-status ones.

Declension

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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

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Descendants

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See also

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References

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Further reading

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  • 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