profestrix

Learned borrowing from Contemporary Latin profestrīx. By surface analysis, profess +‎ -trix.

profestrix (plural profestrices)

1. (rare) A female professor.

   Synonyms: (archaic) professoress, (rare, dated) professorine

   • [1985 December – 1986 January, Herbert H. Huxley, “Emeritology, Latin Agent Nouns, and the Royal Proclamation”, in The Classical Outlook, American Classical League, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 43, column 1:

     Moreover, I introduced into the problem an additional element by requesting their reaction to the word profestrix, […] Mr. John Sparrow, formerly Warden of All Souls’ College, Oxford, was very definite: “As for the retired female professor, I am sure she can’t be called profestrix emerita: profestrix simply won’t do! (Indeed I know it wasn’t meant seriously). ” “I don’t trust profestrix for a moment,” wrote Dr. Frank Stubbings, formerly Orator in the University of Cambridge.]

   • 2006 February 28, mb, “Gender Consufion”, in sci.lang‎^[1] (Usenet), archived from the original on 14 December 2025:

     Of course "profestrix", [re]constructed on the antique model, would be right for the old verb. In fact, it is quite frequently used nowadays, esp. by profestrices of Latin, as in: [links] and a lot of others.

   • 2006 November 10, Brad Ferguson, “Former presidential adviser Ruth Morgenthau dies”, in alt.obituaries‎^[2] (Usenet), archived from the original on 14 December 2025:

     Actually, she was a profestrix emerita.

   • 2007, Jahn Throndsen, Grethe R[ytter] Hasle, Karl Tangen, “Foreword”, in Phytoplankton of Norwegian Coastal Waters, Oslo: Almater Forlag AS, →ISBN, page 7:

     Profestrix emerita Grethe R. Hasle is responsible for the diatom section of the book, senior scientist Karl Tangen for the dinoflagellate part, and professor (now emeritus) Jahn Throndsen is responsible for the other groups and the general part as well as being the editor of the book.

   • [2013 December 10, Erlend Hem, “Emeritus, emerita – or simply retired?”, in Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening [Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association]‎^[3], Oslo: Norwegian Medical Association, archived from the original on 3 June 2018:

     If we were to mark the gender of a female professor, she should properly be referred to as profestrix. A retired female professor would then be referred to as a «profestrix emerita», Torp claimed. However, neither «profestrix» nor «profestrix emerita» have been widely used […]]

   • [2018 March 9, @DrJamesHannam, Twitter‎^[4] (post), archived from the original on 14 December 2025:

     A retired classics prof from the University of Lampeter called herself a Profestrix emerita when I was at Latin camp there, which was quite funny.]

   • [2018 July 17, @stephanuscoombs, Twitter‎^[5] (post), archived from the original on 14 December 2025:

     Important point. Latin demands congruence in grammatical gender, so "professor emerita" is ruled out. If the real sex of the individual is relevant the choice would be "profestrix emerita", but if not (usually the case) stick to "professor emeritus" for women and men alike.]

   • [2019 April 12, @cshperspectives, Twitter‎^[6] (post), archived from the original on 14 December 2025:

     Profestrix emerita surely ;-)]

   • [2023 September 8, @CorCornelissen, X (formerly Twitter)‎^[7] (post; in Dutch), archived from the original on 14 December 2025:

     'professor emerita ...' Ik heb eigenlijk de neiging om in zo'n geval 'profestrix emerita' te gebruiken, maar #profestrix komt weinig voor.

     'professor emerita ...' I'm actually inclined to use 'profestrix emerita' in such a case, but #profestrix is ​​rare.

     Text from image: “Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., is a professor emerita of Lehman College, City University of New York.”]

• Chiefly used with emerita (feminine of emeritus), owing to professor emerita being considered incorrect because professor is maculine in Latin.

From profiteor, professum (“to declare publicly”, verb) +‎ -trīx f (“-ess”, agentive suffix).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [prɔˈfɛs.triːks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [proˈfɛs.triks]

profestrīx f (genitive profestrīcis, masculine professor); third declension

1. (Contemporary Latin) female equivalent of professor

Third-declension noun.