mediatrix

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin mediātrīx. By surface analysis, mediator +‎ -trix.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈmiːdɪətɹɪks/
  • Audio (US, nonstandard):(file)

Noun

mediatrix (plural mediatrices or mediatrixes)

  1. A female mediator.
    Synonym: brokeress
    • 1598, Robert Tofte, “The Third Part of the Moneths Mind of a Melancholy Lover.”, in Alba. The Month's Minde of a Melancholy Lover.[1] (Poetry), published 1880, →OCLC, page 106:
      My lifes Cataſtrophe is at an end, / The Staffe whereon my ſickly Loue did leane / And which from falling (ſtill) did him defend, / Is through miſchance in ſunder broken cleane. / Gone is my Mediatrix, my beſt Aduocate, / Who vſde for me to interceſsionate.
    • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, I.i.11:
      He promised, however, to speak to Mr. Harrel upon the subject, but the promise was evidently given to oblige the fair mediatrix, without any hope of advantage to the cause.
  2. (geometry, rare) A bisector, the line that is perpendicular to a line segment and intersects the line segment at its midpoint.
    • 2000, Jean H. Gallier, Curves and surfaces in geometric modeling, page 105:
      [] the intersection of the normal at M to the parabola with the mediatrix of the line []

Synonyms

Latin

Etymology

Post-classical Latin mediātor.

Pronunciation

Noun

mediātrīx f (genitive mediātrīcis, masculine mediātor); third declension

  1. (Late Latin) mediator, intermediary, go-between (female)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative mediātrīx mediātrīcēs
genitive mediātrīcis mediātrīcum
dative mediātrīcī mediātrīcibus
accusative mediātrīcem mediātrīcēs
ablative mediātrīce mediātrīcibus
vocative mediātrīx mediātrīcēs

References

  • mediatrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • mediatrix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.