mediatrix
English
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Late Latin mediātrīx. By surface analysis, mediator + -trix.
Pronunciation
Noun
mediatrix (plural mediatrices or mediatrixes)
- 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.
- (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
- (female mediator): mediatress
Latin
Etymology
Post-classical Latin mediātor.
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [mɛ.diˈaː.triːks]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [me.d̪iˈaː.t̪riks]
Noun
mediātrīx f (genitive mediātrīcis, masculine mediātor); third declension
- (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 |
Related terms
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.