# productrix
## English
### Etymology

From Latin prōductrīx. By surface analysis, product +‎ -trix.

### Noun

productrix (plural not attested)
* (archaic) female equivalent of productor
** 1587, Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, volume V, London: […] J. Johnson; F. C. and J. Rivington; T. Payne; Wilkie and Robinson; Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme; Cadell and Davies; and J. Mawman, published 1808, page 18:By these and many other reasons and examples I cannot beleeue that these Claiks (or Barnacls as I call them) are producted either by the qualities of the trées or the roots thereof, but onelie by the nature of the sea, which is the verie cause and productrix of so manie wonderfull creatures.
** 1630, W[alter] T[ravers], Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ: or A Iustification of the Religion Now Profesed in England, London: […] T. C. & R. C. for Michael Sparke, pages 125–126:Either then this vniuerſall grace is ſauing grace, (which cannot be, for then all men ſhould be ſaued by it, ſince all men are pertakers of it, as our Arminians affirme: yea, then grace it ſelfe againſt all rules of reaſon, ſhould be the cauſe and author of it ſelfe, ſince you make this vniuerſal grace the productrix, the efficient cauſe of ſauing grace, and ſo by conſequence of it ſelfe,) or elſe it cannot be author, the procurer of true ſauing grace, which ſo farre differs from it, both in kinde, and eminency.
** 1635, E[tienne] Molinier, translated by VVilliam Tyrvvhit, A Mirrour for Christian States: or, A Table of Politick Vertues Considerable Amongst Christians, London: […] Thom. Harper, page 279:They are ordinarily engendred by good Fortune, yet doe they commonly ſpoyle and ruine their productrix.
** 1650, Virgilio Malvezzi, translated by Robert Gentilis, Considerations upon the Lives of Alcibiades and Corialanus, London: […] William Wilson for Humphrey Moseley, page 222:Patience, ſhall likewiſe be called the productrix of all vertues.
** 1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, The History of Philosophy, the Third and Last Volume, […], volume III, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC, pages 129 and 140:Matter, is the print, mother, nurſe, and productrix of the third eſſence; for, receiving likeneſs into it ſelf, and being, as it were, characteriſed by them, it perfects all productions. […] THe Intelligible world proceeds out of the Divine mind, after this manner; The Tetractys reflecting upon its owne eſſence, (the firſt Unite, productrix of all things) and on its owne beginning, (the firſt product) ſaith thus, Once one, twice two, immediately ariſeth a Tetrad, having on its top the higheſt unite, and becomes a Pyramis, whoſe Baſe is a plain Tetrad, anſwerable to a Superficies, upon which the radiant light of the divine unity produceth the form of incorporeall fire, by reaſon of the deſcent of Juno, (Matter) to inferiour things.
** 1681, H[umphrey] B[rooke], The Durable Legacy, London: […] M. White, page 171:Honour is the reward of Vertue, and though a Vitious man may think to have it by the prerogative of his Mastership, yet he but deceives himself, he may have lip or knee-service, but little of the heart, they may be obliged by interest but never by affection, which is the productrix of the truest service.
** 1669, Hugh Davis, De Jure Uniformitatis Ecclesiasticæ: or Three Books, of the Rights Belonging to an Uniformity in Churches. In Which the Chief Things, of the Lawes of Nature, and Nations, and of the Divine Law, Concerning the Consistency of the Ecclesiastical Estate with the Civil, Are Unfolded., London: […] S. Simmons, page 93:in the mean time, it is for theſe reaſons mention’d, and becauſe unity is the productrix of ſuch excellent things to Humane Societies, that it hath ever been endeavoured after, and preſſed upon men by all Laws both Divine and Humane, as is ſaid: Behold, how good and pleaſant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in Unity! ſays the ſweet ſinger of Iſrael.
** 1782, Richard Baker, How the Knowledge of Salvation Is Attainable. A Sermon, Preached at the Arch-Deacon’s Visitation, at Aylsham, in Norfolk, on the 12th of April, 1779., London: […] B. White, […]; T. Evans, […]; and J. and C. Berry, […], page 5:For, although Faith itſelf, the grand productrix, and inſtrument of conveyance of every ſpiritual gift, be “the evidence of things not seen;” and it being thought that knowledge ends where faith begins, yet ſurely may we be ſaid to know their truth or falſhood; or what evidence does faith bring with it?
** 1868, Charles Elliott, edited by Leroy M. Vernon, South-Western Methodism. A History of the M. E. Church in the South-West, from 1844 to 1864. Comprising the Martyrdom of Bewley and Others; Persecutions of the M. E. Church, and Its Reorganization, Etc., Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock, page 116:As slavery entirely excludes marriage, and therefore establishes promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, the father is never a known person, in law or in social society, and the mother is a mere productrix and a nurse, and the child, after that, is not the mother’s, but the master’s, just as his colts and calves are his.
** 1888, Annual of the Universal Medical Sciences, volume IV, Philadelphia, London: F. A. Davis, page 98:Dr. N. V. Jastreboff, of Warsaw, thinks that when the woman is in the child-bearing period and the remaining ovary perfectly healthy, to leave it intact is to intentionally retain the “possibility of conception and pregnancy,” that is, that the woman as a productrix has been preserved.
** 1966, Annual Review of Entomology, pages 70–71:He shows that the complete transition from partial ovipara-productrix to complete ovipara-productrix may require several generations, that the time between fundatrix and the potency for the production of sexuals is constant for a given clone at a certain temperature, but not the number of generations […]
** 1967, Squills Year Book, page 415:Dam, the phenomenal productrix […]
** 2002, Lamia Ben Youssef Zayzafoon, The Production of the Muslim Women in Western Gnosis, Feminist Theory, Maghrebian Nationalism and Literature, page 186:Woman produces [is a productrix of] men; she does not produce material goods but rather this essential thing that is a Muslim (male).

#### Usage notes

While unattested, the expected plurals are productrices (Latinate) and productrixes (Anglicized).

#### Synonyms

* produceress
* productress

### References

* ↑ “productrix, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.