etymology - What is the origin of "-ix" as a feminine variation?


Some words are made feminine by altering the suffix to be -ix. Examples:



  • dominator → dominatrix

  • executor → executrix

  • rector → rectrix


What is the origin of this variation?
From my 5 years of Spanish, and what little I know of Italian/French,
it doesn't seem to me to be from the Romance languages.



Answer



All of these words are loans directly from Latin, where -trix is the feminine counterpart of -tor.


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