LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
noun · femininethird declension

nūtrīx

nūtrīx f (genitive nūtrīcis)
Classical[ˈnuː.triːks]Ecclesiastical[ˈnuː.triks]
Mille Verba core vocabulary

Meaning

  1. a child's nurse; wet nurse; milk mother
    magna datī nūtrīx praemia lactis habet[How] great the rewards of the milk the wet nurse gave. (The she-wolf nurses the twins Romulus and Remus. See wet nurse.)8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 2.422
  2. (anything that provides nutriment and support)
  3. figuratively(that which rears, originates, promotes or fosters)

Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers

fēmina quae īnfantem alit.
nūtrīx -īcis f — in Mille Verba, Domus et Familia
fēmina īnfantem alēns
nūtrīx -īcis (f) — in Epistulae, ch. 11
quae īnfantem lacte alit
nūtrīx -īcis (f) — in Aeneis, ch. 17

Declension

declension
formsingularplural
nominativenūtrīxnūtrīcēs
genitivenūtrīcisnūtrīcum
dativenūtrīcīnūtrīcibus
accusativenūtrīcemnūtrīcēs
ablativenūtrīcenūtrīcibus
vocativenūtrīxnūtrīcēs

Phrases from Meissner's Latin Phrase-Book

errorem cum lacte nutricis sugere (Tusc. 3. 1. 2)
to imbibe error from one's mother's breasts.

nūtrix (old orthogr. notrix, acc. to Quint. 1, 4, 16), īcis, f. nutrio,
I. a wet-nurse, nurse.
I. Lit.: omnia minima mansa, ut nutrices infantibus pueris, in os inserant, Cic. de Or. 2, 39, 162: cum lacte nutricis errorem suxisse, id. Tusc. 3, 1, 2: sidera nutricem nutricis fertile cornu Fecit, Ov. F. 5, 127; Verg. A. 4, 632; 5, 645: Jubae tellus leonum Arida nutrix, Hor. C. 1, 22, 15: gallina nutrix, a hen that has chickens, Col. 8, 11, 13: nutricis tolerare labores, Juv. 6, 593: mater nutrix, a mother that suckles her own infant, Gell. 12, 1, 5; Inscr. Fabr. p. 188, n. 428: est enim illa (oratio) quasi nutrix ejus oratoris, quem informare volumus, Cic. Or. 11, 37: nutricis pallium (prov. of any thing soiled, dirty), Plaut. Bacch. 3, 3, 30.—
B. Transf.
1. She who nourishes or maintains a thing: virgines perpetui nutrices et conservatrices ignis, Arn. 4, 151. —
2. Nutrices, the breasts, Cat. 64, 18.—
3. A piece of ground in which shoots of trees are planted in order to be set out again, a nursery garden, Plin. 17, 10, 12, § 66.—
4. The land that supports a family, Plaut. Trin. 2, 4, 111.—
II. Trop., a nurse: nostramne, ere, vis nutricem, quae nos educat, Abalienare a nobis, Plaut. Trin. 2, 4, 111: curarum maxima nutrix Nox, Ov. M. 8, 81: Sicilia nutrix plebis Romanae, Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 2, § 5: nutrix Discordia belli, Claud. in Ruf. 1, 30.

Origins

Inherited from Proto-Italic *(s)noutrī, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neu-tr-ih₂-. Can potentially be reanalyzed as nūtriō, nūtrītum (“to suckle”, verb) + -trīx f (“-ess”, agentive suffix), with haplology of -trītrī- to -trī-.

Descendants
  • Italiannodrice
  • Italiannudrice
  • Italiannotrice
  • Italiannutrice
  • Old Spanishnodriz
  • Old Spanishnutriz

Quick answers

What does nūtrīx mean in Latin?
nūtrīx, a noun, means “a child's nurse; wet nurse; milk mother”.
What is the genitive of nūtrīx?
The genitive singular is nūtrīcis. nūtrīx is feminine, third declension.
How do you pronounce nūtrīx?
In classical Latin, [ˈnuː.triːks]; in ecclesiastical (church) Latin, [ˈnuː.triks].