English

Noun

indagatrix ‎(plural indagatrices)

1. (rare) A female investigator; a searcheress.
   • 1653: Richard Sanders, Physiognomie and chiromancie, metoposcopie, the symmetrical proportions and signal moles of the body, fully and accurately handled, p269

     The soul, the indigatrix of all things.

   • 2003: Jerome B. Schneewind, Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant, p487

     And thus Philosophy, which judges both of herself and of everything besides, discovers her own province and chief command, teaches me to distinguish between her person and her likeness, and shows me her immediate and real self, by that sole privilege of teaching me to know myself and what belongs to me. She gives to every inferior science its just rank; leaves some to measure sounds, others to scan syllables, others to weigh vacua, and define spaces and extensions; but reserves to herself her due authority and majesty, keeps her state and ancient title of vitae dux, virtutis indagatrix.⁵…

Related terms

• -rix
• indagate
• indagation
• indagative
• indagator
• indagatory

References

• The Oxford English Dictionary (2007).