-trix

suffix (pl. -trices or -trixes) forming feminine agent nouns corresponding to masculine nouns in -tor, esp. in Law (executrix).
Etymology: L -trix -tricis

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a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, where it formed feminine nouns or adjectives corresponding to agent nouns ending in -tor (Bellatrix). On this model, -trix is used in English to form feminine nouns (aviatrix; executrix) and geometrical terms denoting straight lines (directrix).

Also, -trice.

[ < L -trix, s. -tric-]

Usage. A suffix borrowed directly from Latin, -TRIX has been used since the 15th century on feminine agent nouns that correspond to a masculine (in Latin) or generic (in English) agent noun ending in -tor: aviator, aviatrix; legislator, legislatrix; orator, oratrix. Most nouns in -TRIX have dropped from general use, so that terms like aviatrix, benefactrix, legislatrix, oratrix, and proprietrix occur rarely or not at all in present-day English.

The forms in -tor are applied to both men and women: Her sister is the proprietor of a new restaurant. When relevant, sex is specified with the generic term: Amelia Earhart was a pioneer woman aviator. Legal documents still use administratrix, executrix, inheritrix, and the like, but these forms too are giving way to the -tor forms. See also -enne, -ess, -ette.

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-trix /-triks/

suffix (pl -trixes or -trices /-trī-sēz, -tri-siz/)

Denoting a feminine agent

ORIGIN: L

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suffix (pl. -trices or -trixes) (chiefly in legal terms) forming feminine agent nouns corresponding to masculine nouns ending in -tor (such as executrix corresponding to executor)

Origin:

from Latin

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-trix

suffix, ending of Latin feminine agent-nouns (with stems in -trīc-, acc. -tricem, whence Fr. -trice: see -trice), corresponding to masculines in -tor, as adjūtrix female helper, bellātrix female warrior, imperātrix female commander, empress, inventrix female discoverer, vēnātrix huntress, etc.; sometimes used adjectively, as victrix victorious, ultrix avenging. Several of these nouns were adopted in Eng., from ancient or mediæval Latin, in the 15th c. and later, as administratrix, consolatrix, creatrix, executrix, mediatrix, persecutrix, testatrix, etc.; and others formed on the analogy of them, as inheritrix, narratrix, perpetratrix, etc. In Geometry, words in -trix denote straight lines (linea being understood), as bisectrix, directrix; more rarely curves or surfaces, as indicatrix, tractrix. The suffix has occasionally been loosely used to form nonce-feminines to agent-nouns in -ter, as paintrix instead of the regular paintress. The commoner suffix in Eng. is -tress: see also -trice.