nutrix

Latin

Alternative forms

noutrix (archaic inscription, CIL 1.45)

Etymology

From earlier *noutrītrīx, from Proto-Italic *snoutrītrīks, equivalent to nūtriō (“to suckle”) +‎ -trīx (“feminine agent-noun suffix”), with haplology simplifying -trītrī- to -trī-.

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈnuː.triːks/, [ˈnuːt̪riːks̠]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈnu.triks/, [ˈnuːt̪riks]

Noun

nūtrīx f (genitive nūtrīcis); third declension

a child's nurse; wet nurse; milk mother
- 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.422:
  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.)
(transferred sense) (anything that provides nutriment and support)
(figuratively) (that which rears, originates, promotes or fosters)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	nūtrīx	nūtrīcēs
Genitive	nūtrīcis	nūtrīcum
Dative	nūtrīcī	nūtrīcibus
Accusative	nūtrīcem	nūtrīcēs
Ablative	nūtrīce	nūtrīcibus
Vocative	nūtrīx	nūtrīcēs

Derived terms

nūtrīcius

Descendants

Italian: nodrice
Old Spanish: nodriz
→ Italian: nutrice
→ Old Spanish: nutriz

References

“nūtrix” on page 1330 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “nŭtrīcia”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 7: N–Pas, page 248
“nutrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“nutrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
nutrix in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
nutrix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- to imbibe error from one's mother's breasts: errorem cum lacte nutricis sugere (Tusc. 3. 1. 2)