accusatrix

Forms

accūsātrīx f (genitive accūsātrīcis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin accūsō (“to accuse”) + -trīx (“feminine agent suffix”), the feminine counterpart of accūsātor (“accuser, prosecutor”).^[2][1] The verb is formed from ad- and causa (“legal case, cause”);^[1][3] the origin of causa itself is uncertain, and de Vaan's reconstruction Proto-Italic *kaud-ta carries a question mark.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Asinaria: tu mi accusatrix ades, “you stand here as my accuser”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the courts it meant a woman who brings a prosecution, as in a letter of Pliny the Younger to Trajan (Epistulae 10.67).^[4][5] The grammarian Priscian also cites it.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus calls a woman an accuser in the Asinaria.^[4][5]
• 61/62–before 117 AD – Pliny the Younger uses it of a female prosecutor.^[4][5]
• 6th century AD – Priscian cites the word.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman who accuses someone, a female accuser or prosecutor.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de