LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
suffix · femininethird declension

-trīx

-trīx f (genitive -trīcis, masculine -tor)
Classical[triːks]Ecclesiastical[triks]

Meaning

  1. morpheme-ess, -ress, -trix; attached to verb stems to form feminine agent nouns
  2. derogatorymorphemeoftenpoeticAttached to verb stems to form feminine adjectives, often with a poetic quality and/or a negative connotation

Origins

Inherited from Proto-Italic *-trīks, from Proto-Indo-European *-trih₂, from *-tḗr + *-ih₂. Cognate with the Sanskrit suffix -त्री (-trī) as in जनित्री (janitrī, “mother”); compare genetrīx. By surface analysis, -tor + -īx. The origin of the medial -c- is unknown. Compare Proto-Slavic *-ica with the same element, and also with secondary thematicization.

Descendants
  • Catalan-triu
  • English-trix
  • English-tress
  • English-ess
  • French-trice
  • Italian-trice
  • Portuguese-triz
  • Spanish-triz
  • Sicilian-trici

Quick answers

What does -trīx mean in Latin?
-trīx, a suffix, means “-ess, -ress, -trix; attached to verb stems to form feminine agent nouns; Attached to verb stems to form feminine adjectives, often with a poetic quality and/or a negative connotation”.
How do you pronounce -trīx?
In classical Latin, [triːks]; in ecclesiastical (church) Latin, [triks].