executrix meaning (archaic): definition, etymology and quotations

executrix

noun

UK /ɪɡˈzɛkjuːtɹɪks/ · US /ɪɡˈzɛkjətɹɪks/

Etymology

From Late Middle English executrice, executrix (“female executor; administrator of the law; wielder of fate”), from Medieval Latin execūtrīx (possibly through Anglo-Norman *executrice) from execūtor, exsecūtor (“accomplisher, performer; prosecutor, revenger”), + Latin -trīx (suffix forming feminine agent nouns). Exsecūtor is derived from Latin exsequor (“to follow after thoroughly, pursue persistently; (figurative) to execute, perform; to pursue with vengeance, avenge”) (from ex- (intensifying prefix) + sequor (“to follow, pursue”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow”))) + -tor (suffix forming masculine agent nouns). By surface analysis, execute + -trix (suffix forming feminine agent nouns).

Archaic, Rare A female person who executes or carries out something.

My deere he ſayes, vvho vnder golden haire / And vvith a looke ſo delicate in ſhovv, / Doth aged vvit, and manly ſtomacke beare: / […] / VVeaue thou the vveb begun by my deuice, / Of vvarie age as bold executrice. // Goe to the en'mies Campe, and there employ / Ech vvomans vvile, vvhich loue may ſerue to flocke, […]1594, Torquato Tasso, “Canto Qarto: The Fourth Song”, in R[ichard] C[arew], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Hierusalem. […], London: […] Iohn Windet for Christopher Hunt […], →OCLC, page 150:
[A]s for Paracelſus his conceit that Giants and Nymphs vvere artificially born, that he ſayes is falſe: For the firſt ought to be born vvithout humane Art: and that they uſed Art to the generation of men, and not Nature ſeems uncertain & falſ, unleſſe the intelligences, the executrices of Gods providence have uſed this Art in ſome Region; […]1650, John Bulwer, “Scene XXII. Cruel and Fantastical Inventions of Men Practised upon Their Bodies in a Supposed Way of Bravery”, in Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform’d; or, The Artificial Changeling. […], London: […] J. Hardesty, […], →OCLC, pages 248–249:

Law Specifically A female person appointed to execute the wishes of a deceased person as stated in their will; a female executor.

And fewe [wives] there be that be not made at the death of their huſbandes either ſole or chiefe executrixes of his laſt wil and teſtament, and haue for the moſt part the gouernement of the children and their portions: […]1562–1565 (date written), Thomas Smyth [i.e., Thomas Smith], “Of Wiues and Mariages”, in De Republica Anglorum. The Maner of Gouernement or Policie of the Realme of England, […], London: […] Henrie Midleton for Gregorie Seton, published 1583, →OCLC, page 104:
A female […] at ſeventeen may be executrix; and at tvventy one may diſpoſe of herſelf and her lands.1765, William Blackstone, “Of Guardian and Ward”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 451:

3 more examples

[S]he is an executrix, and she likes to go into these things—property, land, that kind of thing.1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XLIX, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book V, page 100:
His widow, Painter Georgia O'Keeffe, has carried on his educational work as executrix of his will by dividing [Alfred] Stieglitz' brilliant art collection and his own even more brilliant photographs among six widely spaced institutions: […]1949 November 14, “Art: Many Ways”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2016:
One summer afternoon Mrs Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Inverarity […]1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 1:

BDSM, Lifestyle, Sexuality Rare A dominatrix who acts a fantasy of killing her client.

The fact that a Google search for “Femdom Executrix” yields over 2,000 results for online videos is proof enough that the erotic death fantasy is an aspect […]2023 September 20, Douglas Thomas, The Deep Psychology of BDSM and Kink: Jungian and Archetypal Perspectives on the Soul’s Transgressive Necessities, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:

Derived terms: coexecutrix, executrix dative, executrixship