Salvete omnes!
Thanks a lot for making use of my site, Carole. (I really ought to update that thing soon.)
The words
vigil and
miles can be used for males and females (according to the OLD).
For these other words, you can use the all-purpose feminizing suffix
-issa: e.g.
propolissa from
propola.
Greek-derived masculine words in
-ta like
athleta and
nauta can be feminized by replacing the
-ta with
-tria:
athletria,
nautria (as seen in Traupman's book).
Traupman seems to be suggesting
geraefria as the feminine version of
geraefa (p. 377, Fourth Edition), but I can neither find another reference to such a word, nor see where on earth he got such a thing. I think it is a mistake. (By the way, according to the "sheriff" entry in the OED,
geréfa is Old English for "reeve.")
Propola is the Latinized version of the Greek προπώλης, and this προπώλης has a longer version προπωλητής, which has the feminine form προπωλήτρια. I suppose, then, you could use
propoletria as the feminine form of
propola.
Carolus Raeticus wrote:Is it possible to simply replace all -tor endings by -trix? I do not feel absolutely comfortable with that solution.
That is not surprising. The
-tor/
-sor suffixes seem to be fairly simple, but there are times when big problems can arise.
The
-tor at the ends of these words can easily be replaced with
-trix to make the feminine versions.
However, when you have words that end in
-sor,
-ssor, and
-xor, things become more complicated. The problems arise because of the phonetic changes that occur when
-tor becomes
-sor and interacts with the roots of verbs. While the
t in
-tor usually changes, the
t in
-trix does not. (According to Lane's
A Latin Grammar, section 159, when the combination
tt appears right before
r, it becomes
st.) This lack of change is important because the words that are created do not correspond as neatly as the
-tor/
-trix pairs of words do.
Lusor is for
lud-tor, where the
dt became
tt and then
ss and finally
s. The feminine version is
lustrix (
lud-trix). Although the
d in
lud- changed to
s, the
t in
-trix did not change at all. Traupman has the feminine version misspelled as
lusrix on page 361 of his book (Fourth Edition), but he has it spelled correctly on page 44!
Possessor is for
possed-tor, where the
dt became
tt and then
ss. The feminine version is
possestrix (
possed-trix). Again, the
t in
-trix did not change.
Impulsor is for
impul-sor, where the verb in question is
impello -ere and the
-tor appears as
-sor. Now, the expected feminine version is
impultrix (
impul-trix), but since
s always appears before
-trix in feminine words that have masculine counterparts in
-sor (e.g.
defensor/
defenstrix and
possessor/
possestrix and
tonsor/tonstrix), a compound suffix
-strix was created, and so we have the actual word
impulstrix (
impul-s-trix). Other words in
-sor that are formed like
impulsor, such as
mansor (
man-sor), ought to have their feminine forms created with that compound suffix:
manstrix. This is convenient because then you won't have to spend too much time figuring out whether a particular word in
-sor was created like
lusor,
possessor, or
impulsor.
Crucifixor is for
crucifig-tor, where the
gt became
cs and then
x. This does not have a feminine form, but we know how the suffix
-trix interacts with the roots of verbs:
crucifig-trix →
crucific-trix →
crucifictrix. Notice that, again, the consonant before the
-trix changed, but the
t in
trix did not. Other words in
-xor work in similar ways:
conexor (
conect-tor →
conecs-sor →
conec-sor)/
conectrix (
conect-trix →
conec-trix) and
fluxor (
flugv-tor →
flug-tor →
fluc-tor →
fluc-sor)/
fluctrix (
flugv-trix →
flug-trix →
fluc-trix). Traupman also understands this because he has the word
conectrum for "linker" (p. 261, Fourth Edition). The
trum suffix is like a neuter version of
-tor and
-trix, and works like
-trix (in the sense that the
t does not change).
The set of rules is basically this:
If the base of the perfect participle of a verb ends in...
- t, then replace t with: -tor, -trix
- s, then replace s with: -sor, -strix
- ss, then replace ss with: -ssor, -strix
- x, then replace x with: -xor, -ctrix
One other thing: I have seen the
-issa suffix used with the
-tor suffix:
professorissa. I have also seen the regularly formed feminine version of
professor:
profestrix.
Carolus Raeticus wrote:Generally speaking, is it allowable to use -trix only in order to emphasise the feminine character and otherwise use the -tor one (retaining feminine gender, of course), e.g. praesentator, -oris f.
I suppose one could use
praesentator to refer to a female person, but then it would be in cases where the gender, for whatever reason, is not thought of as relevant. But the
-tor and
-trix are very much gender-specific more often than not (if not almost all the time), and so I recommend that you use one or the other depending on the gender in question.
Valete.