genetrix

Forms

genetrīx f (genitive genetrīcis, masculine genitor); third declension^[1] A less frequent spelling is genitrīx.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin gignō (“to beget”) + -trīx,^[3] the feminine of genitor (“father”); de Vaan notes that the form ⟨genetrix⟩ requires a stem at least as old as ⟨*genetor⟩.^[4] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁trih₂, from the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget”).^[1][4] Compare Sanskrit जनित्री (jánitrī, “mother”) and Ancient Greek γενέτειρα (genéteira, “mother”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius,^[4] who has a prayer to “Venus, born of the sea, mother of our father”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a mother, usually of a particular person, and in poetry it is used especially of Venus as the ancestress of the Romans, as in the first line of Lucretius, “mother of the sons of Aeneas”.^[3][2] Catullus applies it to his native land, and Apuleius to the earth as mother and nurse of all living things.^[3] Figuratively it is the originator of something, as Laevius' Venus, “mother of desire”.^[3] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan.^[2]

In Church Latin it is used of the Mother of God.^[6]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of Venus as mother of Aeneas.^[3][4][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of Venus as mother of the Romans.^[3][7]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of his native land.^[3][7]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of the earth.^[3][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mother; of Venus, the ancestress of the Romans; of the earth or one's native land.^[3][2][1]
2. An originator, creator; a foundress.^[3]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The Mother of God.^[6]

Related words

• genitor
• gignō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de