nutrix

Latin

Etymology

From earlier *nūtrītrīx, from nūtriō (“I suckle”) +‎ -trīx (“feminine agent-noun suffix”), with haplology simplifying -trītrī- to trī.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈnuː.triːks/, [ˈnuːt̪riːks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈnu.triks/, [ˈnuːt̪riks]

Noun

nūtrīx f (genitive nūtrīcis); third declension

1. wet nurse, nurse

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	nūtrīx	nūtrīcēs
Genitive	nūtrīcis	nūtrīcum
Dative	nūtrīcī	nūtrīcibus
Accusative	nūtrīcem	nūtrīcēs
Ablative	nūtrīce	nūtrīcibus
Vocative	nūtrīx	nūtrīcēs

Descendants

• → English: nurse
• French: nourrice
• Italian: nutrice
• Norman: nouôrriche (Jersey)
• Portuguese: nutriz
• Spanish: nodriza

References

• “nutrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “nutrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• nutrix in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• nutrix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to imbibe error from one's mother's breasts: errorem cum lacte nutricis sugere (Tusc. 3. 1. 2)