obstetrix

From Latin obstetrīx.

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obstetrix

1. (formal) A midwife.

• “obstetrix, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• obstitrix

From obstō (“to stand before”, verb) +‎ -trīx f (“-ess”, agentive suffix), or with the same elements.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɔp.stɛ.triːks], [ɔpˈstɛt.riːks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɔb.ste.triks], [obˈstɛt.riks]
• The vowel in the second syllable is short -ĕ-,^[1] reduced from the short -ă- seen in stătus, stător, etc.^[2] Metrically, the second syllable can be light or heavy because of the following -tr- cluster.

obstetrīx f (genitive obstetrīcis); third declension

1. midwife
   • c. 200 BCE – 190 BCE, Plautus, Captivi 2.2.96–97, (trochaic septenarius):

     Qui tu scis? an tu fortasse fuisti meae matri obstetrix, / qui id tam audacter dicere audes?

     How do you know? Or were you perhaps my mother’s midwife, that you dare to say that so boldly?

Third-declension noun.

• → English: obstetrix (learned)

• “obstetrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “obstetrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers