"meretrix" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*(s)mer- (allot)"
      },
      "expansion": "",
      "name": "root"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "meretrīx"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin meretrīx",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Latin meretrīx.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "meretrices",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "meretrices"
      },
      "expansion": "meretrix (plural meretrices)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Ancient Rome",
          "orig": "en:Ancient Rome",
          "parents": [
            "Ancient Africa",
            "Ancient Europe",
            "Ancient history",
            "Ancient Near East",
            "History of Italy",
            "History of Africa",
            "History of Europe",
            "History",
            "Ancient Asia",
            "Italy",
            "Africa",
            "Europe",
            "All topics",
            "History of Asia",
            "Earth",
            "Eurasia",
            "Fundamental",
            "Asia",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "a. 100 CE, Petronius, translated by W. C. Firebaugh, Satyricon, published 1922",
          "text": "Nomus Marcellus has pointed out the difference between this class of prostitutes and the prostibula. \"This is the difference between a meretrix (harlot) and a prostibula (common strumpet): a meretrix is of a more honorable station and calling; for meretrices are so named a merendo (from earning wages) because they plied their calling only by night; prostibulu because they stand before the stabulum (stall) for gain both by day and night.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Ariadne Staples, From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins, Routledge",
          "text": "Of the two ritually important female categories, matrona and meretrix, it was the matrona that was held at a strict ritual distance. […] The domain of the meretrix was not held at a ritual distance. The boundary between male and female was not quite so stark when the female belonged to the category of prostitute.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A prostitute in Ancient Rome."
      ],
      "id": "en-meretrix-en-noun-VQ-ZT4V5",
      "links": [
        [
          "prostitute",
          "prostitute"
        ],
        [
          "Ancient Rome",
          "Ancient Rome"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "meretrix"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*(s)mer- (allot)"
      },
      "expansion": "",
      "name": "root"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "meretrīx"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin meretrīx",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Latin meretrīx.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "meretrices",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "meretrices"
      },
      "expansion": "meretrix (plural meretrices)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English nouns with irregular plurals",
        "English terms borrowed from Latin",
        "English terms derived from Latin",
        "English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European",
        "English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)mer- (allot)",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Ancient Rome"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "a. 100 CE, Petronius, translated by W. C. Firebaugh, Satyricon, published 1922",
          "text": "Nomus Marcellus has pointed out the difference between this class of prostitutes and the prostibula. \"This is the difference between a meretrix (harlot) and a prostibula (common strumpet): a meretrix is of a more honorable station and calling; for meretrices are so named a merendo (from earning wages) because they plied their calling only by night; prostibulu because they stand before the stabulum (stall) for gain both by day and night.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Ariadne Staples, From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins, Routledge",
          "text": "Of the two ritually important female categories, matrona and meretrix, it was the matrona that was held at a strict ritual distance. […] The domain of the meretrix was not held at a ritual distance. The boundary between male and female was not quite so stark when the female belonged to the category of prostitute.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A prostitute in Ancient Rome."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "prostitute",
          "prostitute"
        ],
        [
          "Ancient Rome",
          "Ancient Rome"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "meretrix"
}