meretrix

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin meretrīx.

Noun

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.

References

• “meretrix, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Latin

Alternative forms

• meritrix
• meretris, meletrix, meletris, menetrix, menetris (Late Latin, popular, dissimilation, cluster simplification, proscribed)

Etymology

From mereō, meritum (“to earn (a living)”, verb) +‎ -trīx f (“-ess”, feminine agentive suffix), literally “the earner”.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛ.rɛ.triːks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛː.re.triks]

Noun

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

1. 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.

	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
• → Old Irish: mertrech
  • Irish: meirdreach
• → 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^[3], volume 126, number 3/4, →ISSN, pages 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