executrix

executrix

English

WOTD – 8 March 2026

Etymology

From Late Middle English executrice, executrix (“female executor; administrator of the law; wielder of fate”),[1] from Medieval Latin execūtrīx (possibly through Anglo-Norman *executrice)[2] from execūtor, exsecūtor (“accomplisher, performer; prosecutor, revenger”),[3] + 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).

Pronunciation

  • Singular:
    • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪɡˈzɛkjuːtɹɪks/, /ɛɡ-/
    • (General American) IPA(key): /ɪɡˈzɛkjətɹɪks/, /ɛɡ-/
    • Audio (General American); /ɪɡˈzɛkjətɹɪks/:(file)
      (file)
    • Hyphenation: ex‧e‧cu‧trix
  • Plural (executrices):
    • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪɡˈzɛkjuːtɹɪˌsiːz/, /ɛɡ-/, /-sɪz/
    • (General American) IPA(key): /ɪɡˈzɛkjətɹɪˌsiz/, /ɛɡ-/, /-sɪz/
    • Hyphenation: ex‧e‧cu‧tri‧ces

Noun

executrix (plural executrices or executrixes)

  1. (archaic, rare) A female person who executes or carries out something.
    • 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:
      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, […]
    • 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:
      [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; […]
  3. (specifically, law) A female person appointed to execute the wishes of a deceased person as stated in their will; a female executor.
    Synonyms: (archaic or obsolete) executress, (contraction) execx, (contraction) exrx, (contraction) exx, (contraction) Ex'x
    Coordinate terms: administrator, administratrix, executor
    • 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:
      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: […]
    • 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:
      A female […] at ſeventeen may be executrix; and at tvventy one may diſpoſe of herſelf and her lands.
    • 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:
      [S]he is an executrix, and she likes to go into these things—property, land, that kind of thing.
    • 1949 November 14, “Art: Many Ways”, in Time‎[1], New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 7 March 2016:
      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: […]
    • 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 1:
      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 […]

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ “execūtrīce, -trix, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “† executrice, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  3. ^ “executrix, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025; “executrix, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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