natrix

See also: Natrix

Latin edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Italic *natriks, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)nh₁-tr-ih₂-.^[1] Cognate with German Natter, English adder. According to a proposal of André Martinet, the /ks/ in the nominative singular developed from word-final *h₂s, and /ik/ subsequently spread from the nominative singular to other forms of the word by paradigmatic leveling; Schrijver 1991 rejects this hypothesis, but Rasmussen 1993 considers it plausible.^[2]

A pronunciation with a long vowel in the second syllable is attested by the time of Priscian (see Pronunciation below); this may have been caused by the much greater frequency of nouns ending in -īx, -īcis compared to those ending in -ĭx, -ĭcis, and more specifically by the possibility of reinterpreting the word as a feminine agent noun derived from the verb no, nāre (“swim”) and the suffix -trīx (“-tress”).

Pronunciation edit

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈna.triːks/, [ˈnät̪riːks̠] or IPA^(key): /ˈna.triks/, [ˈnät̪rɪks̠]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈna.triks/, [ˈnäːt̪riks]

The fragment of Lucilius cited below (definition 2) requires both vowels to be short in order for the line to scan as a hexameter.^[3] However, the 6th-century grammarian Priscian lists this word among deverbal nouns ending in -trīx with long ī, implying that by his time an analogically altered form with a long vowel in the second syllable was in use.^[4]

Noun edit

natrī̆x f or m (genitive natrī̆cis); third declension

water snake
- 106 BCE – 43 BCE, Cicero, Lucullus 120.4:
  Cur deus, omnia nostra causa cum faceret (sic enim vultis), tantam vim natricum viperarumque fecerit, cur mortifera tam multa <ac> perniciosa terra marique disperserit.
- c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Seneca the Younger, Dialogi 4.31.8.2:
  Ne viperas quidem et natrices et si qua morsu aut ictu nocent effligeremus, si in reliquum mansuefacere possemus aut efficere ne nobis aliisve periculo essent; ergo ne homini quidem nocebimus quia peccavit, sed ne peccet, nec umquam ad praeteritum sed ad futurum poena referetur; non enim irascitur sed cavet.
- c. 61 CE – 65 CE, Lucan, Pharsalia 9.720:
  et natrix violator aquae, iaculique volucres
Metaphor of disputed meaning; perhaps denoting either a penis or a type of whip.^[5]^[6]
- 2nd century BC, Gaius Lucilius, Saturae 2.72:^[7]
  si natibus natricem inpressit crassam et capitatam
  2014 translation by Robert Cowan
  if s/he thrusts a thick natrix with a head on it into/onto my buttocks
name of a plant
- Pliny, Natural History 27.107.1:
  Natrix vocatur herba, cuius radix evulsa virus hirci redolet.

Usage notes edit

Attested as masculine only once, in Lucan (quoted above under definition 1).

Declension edit

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	natrī̆x	natrī̆cēs
Genitive	natrī̆cis	natrī̆cum
Dative	natrī̆cī	natrī̆cibus
Accusative	natrī̆cem	natrī̆cēs
Ablative	natrī̆ce	natrī̆cibus
Vocative	natrī̆x	natrī̆cēs

Descendants edit

Translingual: Natrix (taxonomic genus)
→ English: rinatrix
→ Italian: natrice
→ Spanish: natriz

References edit

^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “natrix, -icis”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 402
^ Rasmussen, Jens Elmegård (1993), REVIEW ARTICLE, "Peter Schrijver: The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Latin. Rodopi, Amsterdam - Atlanta, GA 1991 (Leiden Studies in Indo-European 2). XL + 616 pp." Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International Journal of Linguistics, 26:1, 175-205
^ Ingram, John K. (1883) "Notes on Latin Lexicography. II.—On the Prosody of some Latin Words." Hermathena Vol. 4, No. 9, pp. 402-412 (11 pages), page 406. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23036279
^ Postgate, J.P. (1917) "Adnotanda in Latin Prosody." The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Oct., 1917), pp. 169-178 (10 pages); page 172
^ Adams, J.N. (1990) The Latin Sexual Vocabulary‎^[1], JHU Press, →ISBN, page 31
^ Williams, Craig A (1999) Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity‎^[2], Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 272
^ Cowan, Robert. (2014) "Cinna's Trouser Snake - or the Biter Bit? Alternative Interpretations of Cinna fr. 12 FRP", Antichthon 48, 95-108; page 104