Etymologically
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obstetrix

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɔp.stɛ.triːks], [ɔpˈstɛt.riːks][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔb.ste.triks], [obˈstɛt.riks][1]

Forms

obstetrīx f (genitive obstetrīcis); third declension[1] Inscriptions often spell it opstetrix, and manuscripts also have obstitrix and obsetrix.[2][3][4] Priscian mentions the form obstitrix.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin obstō (“to stand in front of, stand opposite”) + -trīx, the agent suffix of women.[4][1][5] Etymonline explains it as the woman who stands opposite the mother giving birth.[6] The TLL compares both obstō and obsistō (“to stand against”).[2]

Ancient writers explained the name in several ways: an old commentary on Terence's Andria connects it with bringing opem (“help”), and Ambrose says midwives were so called because they stand against the pain, or against the child falling to the ground.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,[5] meaning a midwife: in the Cistellaria a woman gives birth without the help of a midwife (sine obstetricis opera).[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The meaning stayed the same throughout: Terence, Horace, Columella, Pliny the Elder, Apuleius and Ammianus use it of midwives,[3][7] and the Vulgate uses it of the midwives in Exodus.[3] The jurist Paulus mentions them in his Sententiae.[3] Ecclesiastical Latin uses it in the same sense.[8]

In British medieval Latin it remained the word for a midwife; an Old English gloss renders it byrþinenu, and a later word list gives mydwyfe.[9] English formed obstetric (1742) from Modern Latin obstetricus, from this word.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Captivi and the Cistellaria.[3][7][5]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence has a character send for the midwife.[3][7][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it in the Epodes.[3][7][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder writes about midwives.[3][5]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of the midwives in Exodus.[3][5]
  • 1742 – English forms obstetric from Modern Latin obstetricus.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A midwife.[4][3][8]

Word family

  • obstetrīcius

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ 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