inventrix

English

Alternative forms

• inuentrix [17th century]

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin inventrīx. By surface analysis, inventor +‎ -trix.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ĭnvĕnʹtrĭks, IPA^(key): /ɪnˈvɛntɹɪks/

Noun

inventrix (plural inventrices)

1. (archaic) A female that invents.
   • 1673, Randle Cotgrave, “Trouveuſe”, in A French and English Dictionary:

     Trouveuſe: f. An inventrix; or a woman that findeth out.

   • 1997, Angelika Taschen, Roberto Ohrt, Burkhard Riemschneider, editors, Kippenberger, Taschen, →ISBN, page 218, →ISBN:

     Two proletariat inventrices on the way to an inventor’s congress

Synonyms

• inventress

Coordinate terms

• inventor

Translations

a female that invents

• Czech: vynálezkyně (cs) f
• French: inventrice (fr) f, trouveuse (fr) f
• Italian: inventrice f
• Latin: inventrīx f
• Spanish: inventora f
• Welsh: dyfeiswraig f

References

• “inˈventrix” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]
• “inventrix, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Latin

Etymology

From inveniō, inventum (“to discover”, verb) +‎ -trīx f (“-ess”, agentive suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɪnˈwɛn.triːks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [iɱˈvɛn.triks]

Noun

inventrīx f (genitive inventrīcis, masculine inventor); third declension

1. an inventrix; a female inventor, inventress; she that finds out or discovers something
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 6.709–710:

     ‘sum tamen inventrīx auctorque ego carminis huius
     hoc est, cūr nostrōs ars cōlat ista diēs.’

     “Yet I am the inventress, I the originator, of this music. This is why that art observes my [festival] days.”
     (The poetic voice of Minerva credits herself for having invented the pipe or flute; the flute-players of ancient Rome honored the goddess annually in June.)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	inventrīx	inventrīcēs
genitive	inventrīcis	inventrīcum
dative	inventrīcī	inventrīcibus
accusative	inventrīcem	inventrīcēs
ablative	inventrīce	inventrīcibus
vocative	inventrīx	inventrīcēs

Descendants

• English: inventrix
• French: inventrice
• Italian: inventrice

References

• “inventrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “inventrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers