mediatrix

English

Etymology

From Late Latin mediātrīx, feminine of mediātor.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmiːdɪətɹɪks/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

mediatrix (plural mediatrices or mediatrixes)

1. A female mediator.

   Synonym: brokeress

   • 1598, Robert Tofte, “The Third Part of the Moneths Mind of a Melancholy Lover.”, in Alba. The Month's Minde of a Melancholy Lover.‎^[1] (Poetry), published 1880, →OCLC, page 106:

     My lifes Cataſtrophe is at an end, / The Staffe whereon my ſickly Loue did leane / And which from falling (ſtill) did him defend, / Is through miſchance in ſunder broken cleane. / Gone is my Mediatrix, my beſt Aduocate, / Who vſde for me to interceſsionate.

   • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, I.i.11:

     He promised, however, to speak to Mr. Harrel upon the subject, but the promise was evidently given to oblige the fair mediatrix, without any hope of advantage to the cause.

2. (geometry, rare) A bisector, the line that is perpendicular to a line segment and intersects the line segment at its midpoint.
   • 2000, Jean H. Gallier, Curves and surfaces in geometric modeling, page 105:

     […] the intersection of the normal at M to the parabola with the mediatrix of the line […]

Synonyms

• (female mediator): mediatress

Latin

Etymology

Post-classical Latin mediātor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /me.diˈaː.triːks/, [mɛd̪iˈäːt̪riːks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /me.diˈa.triks/, [med̪iˈäːt̪riks]

Noun

mediātrīx f (genitive mediātrīcis, masculine mediātor); third declension

1. (Late Latin) mediator, intermediary, go-between (female)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	mediātrīx	mediātrīcēs
genitive	mediātrīcis	mediātrīcum
dative	mediātrīcī	mediātrīcibus
accusative	mediātrīcem	mediātrīcēs
ablative	mediātrīce	mediātrīcibus
vocative	mediātrīx	mediātrīcēs

Related terms

• mediator

References

• “mediatrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• mediatrix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.