Ick! The -ix!
Whistling girls and crowing hens
Always come to some bad end.1
They are decidedly odd to the modern eye, these words from an older time.
Administratrix.
Executrix.
They are even odder to the modern ear, if you ever hear them spoken aloud.
Oratrix.
Prosecutrix.
And even though The Legal Genealogist‘s younger kin accuse her of living in the past, even my now-ancient law school experience didn’t prepare me for dealing with these words from an older time.
Even to me, they look and sound weird.
Downright icky, that -ix ending.
But we encounter them all the time in older legal documents, so …
First off, the ending really isn’t -ix, it’s -trix:
a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, where it formed feminine nouns or adjectives corresponding to agent nouns ending in -tor, (Bellatrix). On this model, -trix, is used in English to form feminine nouns (aviatrix; executrix) and geometrical terms denoting straight lines ( directrix).
A suffix borrowed directly from Latin, -trix has been used since the 15th century on feminine agent nouns that correspond to a masculine (in Latin) or generic (in English) agent noun ending in -tor: aviator, aviatrix; legislator, legislatrix; orator, oratrix.2
And an agent noun, by the way, is “a noun denoting the doer of an action, as editor or jogger.”3
So in reality we should be dealing here with a woman of action, right? An oratrix, for example, is currently defined as “a woman who delivers an oration; a public speaker, especially one of great eloquence.”4
Um… no.
Because, as usual, the law has its own set of definitions. So when you come across these words in a dusty old court record, keep in mind that even the underlying term (orator, for a male) may have meant something different when used in a legal context.
But so that you won’t have to go off looking for just the right definition, here’s your cheat sheet of common terms ending in -trix that you’re likely to encounter in legal documents:
Actrix. “Lat. A female actor; a female plaintiff.”5
Administratrix. “A female who administers, or to whom letters of administration have been granted.”6
Creditrix. “A female creditor.”7
Curatrix. “A woman who has been appointed to the office of curator; a female guardian.”8
Disseisitrix. “A female disseisor; a disseisoress.”9
Emtrix. “In the civil law. A female purchaser; the purchaser.”10
Executrix. “A woman who has been appointed by will to execute such will or testament.”11
Inheretrix. “The old term for ‘heiress’.”12
Oratrix. “A female petitioner; a female plaintiff in a bill in chancery was formerly so called.”13
Pandoxatrix. “An ale-wife; a woman that both brewed and sold ale and beer.”14
Procuratrix. “In old English law. A female agent or attorney in fact.”15
Prosecutrix. “In criminal law. A female prosecutor.”16
Relatrix. “In practice. A female relator or petitioner.”17
Testatrix. “A woman who makes a will; a woman who dies leaving a will; a female testator.”18
Venditrix. “Lat. A female vendor.”19
Now excuse me please. I have an irresistable impulse to go whistle.
SOURCES
- Sylvester Judd, History of Hadley, … Massachusetts (Northampton, Mass. : Metcalf & Co., 1863), 381 n.*; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 23 Sep 2014). ↩
- Dictionary.com Unabridged, Random House, Inc. (http://dictionary.reference.com/ : accessed 23 Sep 2014), “-trix.” ↩
- Ibid., “agent noun.” ↩
- Ibid., “oratrix.” ↩
- Henry Campbell Black, A Dictionary of Law (St. Paul, Minn. : West, 1891), 29, “actrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 40, “administratrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 300, “creditrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 309, “curatrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 377, “disseisitrix.” A disseisor is “One who puts another out of the possession of his lands wrongfully.” Ibid., “disseisor.” ↩
- Ibid., 418, “emtrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 457, “executrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 622, “inheretrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 854, “oratrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 865, “pandoxatrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 949, “procuratrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 956, “prosecutrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 1016, “relatrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 1166, “testatrix.” ↩
- Ibid., 1213, “venditrix.” ↩
LOl I love the whistling smiley, and there are definitely some of these I have never heard of. I havenever had a pandoxatrix cross my path. 🙂 Thanks as usual for an enlightening post.
Those ale-wives will get us every time, won’t they, Fran? Thanks for the kind words.
My great-grand-aunt was a YMCA volunteer at the Front in World War I, and her role was described in the records as ‘Directrix of secretaries.’ The archivist had never seen that position before and said they had to look up the definition of ‘directrix’ when they were answering my query. I thought it was ironic that someone who was in what her personal papers suggest was a grueling situation was described in such a gendered way, particularly since many Americans vehemently did not want women volunteering at the Front at all.
Amazing that the form of the word has faded so much that people today can’t even parse it through. But oh yes… gender-based descriptions or forms are common in other languages, not so much in English and that may be a big part of the reason why we find these words so surprising or even jarring.
While I’m familiar with this suffix, when I see nouns with this construction, I feel more and more like I’m reading some sort of Harry Potter spell. 😉
Accio oratrix!! (Love it.)
This “-trix” suffix does not come trippingly off the tongue, does it?
True story. A million years ago (give or take a couple), I was handling a habeas corpus case in federal court for the government. The defense attorney was 90 if he was a day and he kept referring to me as “Madame Prosecutrix.” After the fifth or sixth time he said it, with everybody — court reporter, spectators, clerk all looking at him quizzically — the male judge jumped in and ordered him to refer to me from then on as “the government, all right? Just the government. That’s enough.”
Well, I’m glad we have that out of the way.
🙂
Somehow, “Caveat emtrix!” just doesn’t have the same ring.
It doesn’t, does it? Or caveat venditrix, either!
Sigh… Glad we don’t use these forms any more.
LOVE IT!!! Can’t tell you how many times I used the Judd Manuscript at Forbes Library in Northampton, MA when I lived there! I was a permanent resident either at the Hampshire Room for Local History, or on one of the microfilm readers! Those were wonderful days of my genealogical beginnings.
Thanks for the kind words.
My grandfather used to say Whistling women and crowing hens God or m are neither good to God or men – this is probably why i never really tried to whistle
I found a number of versions of this, Helen. The one my grandmother used to say was, “Whistling girls and cackling hens, often come to some bad ends.”
I remember being told many moons ago that people who whistle are “well adjusted”. I always did like to whistle!
Then again, just because I whistle doesn’t mean I don’t make typos in my own name! Darn iPad!