meretrix
English
Noun
meretrix (plural meretrices)
- A prostitute in Ancient Rome.
- a. 100 CE, Petronius, translated by W. C. Firebaugh, Satyricon, 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, 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
Alternative forms
- meritrix
- meletrix, meletris, menetrix, menetris (Late Latin, popular, dissimilation, cluster simplification, proscribed)
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈme.re.triːks/, [ˈmɛrɛt̪riːks̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈme.re.triks/, [ˈmɛːret̪riks]
Noun
meretrīx f (genitive meretrīcis, masculine meretor); third declension
- 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.
Derived terms
- meretrīcābilis
- meretrīciē
- meretrīcius
- meretrīcor
- meretrīcula
Related terms
- merenda
- merendārius
- merendō
- merēns
- mereō
- meritō
- meritōrium
- meritōrius
- meritum
- meritus
Descendants
See also
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, 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
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