inventrix

Forms

inventrīx f (genitive inventrīcis, masculine inventor); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin inveniō (“to find, discover”) + -trīx, the feminine counterpart of inventor.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in Cicero, who calls Athens the discoverer of all learning (omnium doctrinarum inventrices Athenae) in the De oratore; he also uses it of the originator of war and of laws.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Virgil calls Minerva the discoverer of the olive (oleaeque Minerva inventrix),^[6][3] and in Ovid's Fasti a speaker claims to be the inventrix and author of a song.^[4][3] Quintilian speaks of an ars inventrix for the Greek art of topics.^[3] Late writers used it more freely: Mallius Theodorus calls music the source of measure and sweetness in every sound, and Peter Chrysologus calls the fox the deviser of tricks.^[7]

In British medieval Latin it was a legal term for the woman who first found a dead body, recorded in assize and coroners' rolls.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of Athens.^[4][9]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of Minerva.^[6][9]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid has it in the Fasti.^[4][9]
• 399 AD – Mallius Theodorus uses it of music.^[7][9]
• 1221 – A Gloucester plea roll uses it of the woman who first found a body.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female discoverer or finder.^[2][4]
2. A female inventor, deviser or originator.^[2][3]
3. (Medieval Latin, law) The woman who first finds a dead body.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de