meretrix
meretrix noun: a prostitute in Ancient Rome.
Noun
meretrix (plural meretrices)
- A prostitute in Ancient Rome.
- Nomus Marcellus has pointed out the difference between this class of prostitutes and the prostibula. "This is the difference between a meretrix (harlot) and a prostibula (common strumpet): a meretrix is of a more honorable station and calling; for meretrices are so named a merendo (from earning...a. 100 CE, Petronius, translated by W. C. Firebaugh, Satyricon, published 1922
- Hands grasped me like a doll, and as I dandled thus between the meretrices of Abaia, I was lifted from my broad-armed chair in the inn of Saltus; yet still, for perhaps a hundred heartbeats more, I could not rid my mind of the sea and its green-haired women.1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 72
meretrix meaning in Tamil
meretrix in Tamil
- இருவோட்டு மெல்லுடலிகளுள் ஒன்று, மட்டி
Forms of meretrix
| plural | meretrices |
|---|
Origin of meretrix
Borrowed from Latin meretrīx.
Questions about meretrix
- What does meretrix mean?
- Meretrix means a prostitute in Ancient Rome.
- What is meretrix in Tamil?
- Meretrix in Tamil is இருவோட்டு மெல்லுடலிகளுள் ஒன்று, மட்டி. See Meretrix meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is meretrix?
- Meretrix is a noun.
- What is the plural of meretrix?
- The plural of meretrix is meretrices.
Words near meretrix in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: meretrix (page history and authors); meretrix (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “meretrix.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/meretrix. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.