ministrix

English

Etymology

From Latin ministrīx.

Noun

ministrix (plural not attested)

1. (rare) A female minister.
   • 1831 February 18, “Also an Army Veterinarian”, “On Chronic Foot Lameness; Mr. Coleman and Mr. Bracy Clark on the Foot; and the Army Veterinary Department”, in Messrs. Percivall and Youatt, editors, The Veterinarian, volume IV, London: […] Compton and Ritchie, […]; […] Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, […], published 1831, page 155:

     Regarding The Veterinarian as the organ of neither individuals nor party in veterinary objects, but the property of all veterinarians, and the ministrix to their honour and weal, and the promoter, in every form, of improvement, I trust the Editors will give these remarks a place.

   • 1857, “The Sogne-Fjord”, in A Long Vacation Ramble in Norway and Sweden, Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., page 108:

     When we had left the house, the little ministrix ran after us, apologised for her mistake, and returned us two marks.

   • 1963, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala, India as Known to Pāṇini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashṭādhyāyī, page 88:

     The social status of the husband devolved on his wife, as implied in Pāṇini’s sūtra (Puṁyogād ākhyāyām, IV. 1. 48), i. e. a designation derived from her husband; e. g. mahāmātrī (ministrix), wife of a mahāmātra, a high government official, and gaṇakī, wife of a gaṇaka (accountant).

   • 1975, Richard H. Goldstone, Thornton Wilder: An Intimate Portrait, →ISBN, page 231:

     In one of his very last letters to Sibyl Colefax, Wilder took note of the widely circulated reports that she was the Julia of Eliot’s play and vehemently denied the justice of the parallel and added that she was neither the babbling hostess of Act I nor the Ministrix of the Mysteries of Act II.

   • 1981, The Long Conversation: A Memoir of David Jones, page 61:

     Funny thing, David Blamires, who writes on DJ, is a Quaker, and Tony Stoneburner, who wrote his thesis on him, is ‘a Baptist minister very well up on theology and church history, and his wife is a Presbyterian ministrix (or is it the other way round?)’.

   • 1988, Linda Kay Hoff, Hamlet’s Choice: Hamlet—A Reformation Allegory (Studies in Renaissance Literature; volume 2), Lewiston, N.Y.: The Edwin Mellen Press, →ISBN, pages 177 and 184:

     Just as the deity was the Dominus, Mary was the Domina, and in her capacity as ministrix of the Treasury of Grace she came to be viewed as the singulare praesidium, the ‘unique help,’ of all those who turned to her, as in the ancient invocation to Mary "Sub tuum praesidium" (Graef 1:221, 307). […] Thenceforward Mary was envisioned as sitting crowned in heaven, splendidly bejeweled and magnificently enthroned at the right hand of Christ, her son and spouse, as she, the mediatrix and ministrix of all grace, interceded for her votaries on earth.

   • 2008, Richard D. Sears, Ancestors of Anne (Smith) Weatherford (Founders and Presidents of Berea College; volume 8), page 96:

     She bequeathed £20 per year for life to her “beloved Sister Elizabeth Weekley,” daughter of Benjamin Blake, deceased; she gave £50 for the building of an Anabaptist parsonage house in Charlestown and £20 per year to the ministrix.

Synonyms

• ministress (archaic)

Related terms

• prime ministrix

Latin

Etymology

From minister +‎ -trīx.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /miˈnis.triːks/, [mɪˈnɪs̠t̪riːks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /miˈnis.triks/, [miˈnist̪riks]

Noun

ministrīx f (genitive ministrīcis, masculine minister); third declension

1. ministress, ministrix
   • 1467, [Testamentary case]; republished as Acts of Chapter of the Collegiate Church of Ss. Peter and Wilfrid, Ripon, A.D. 1452 to A.D. 1506 (The Publications of the Surtees Society; volume LXIV), […] for the Society by Andrews & Co., […]; Whittaker & Co., […]; Bernard Quaritch, […]; Blackwood & Sons, […], 1875, 52 v., page 125:

     Agnes uxor Johannis Thorp, ministrix bonorum Ricardi Pygott, citatus est ad instanciam magistri Johannis Gylson.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1484, Excellens Opus D. Joannis […]‎^[1], column 2, lines 11–14:

     […] ſit cũ illo quem ſuo genuit vtero ſit apud illum illa q̃ genuit · ſouit ⁊ aluit illum Maria dei genitrix · miniſtrix · ⁊ ſeruitrix · […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ministrīx	ministrīcēs
Genitive	ministrīcis	ministrīcum
Dative	ministrīcī	ministrīcibus
Accusative	ministrīcem	ministrīcēs
Ablative	ministrīce	ministrīcibus
Vocative	ministrīx	ministrīcēs

Synonyms

• ministra

Descendants

• → English: ministrix

References

• “ministrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press