strix

See also: Strix

English

Etymology

From Latin strix, from Ancient Greek στρίξ (stríx, “screecher”).

Noun

strix (plural strixes or striges)

1. (mythology) A bird-like demon feeding on human flesh and blood.
   • 2017, Ronald Hutton, The Witch, Yale University Press, published 2018, page 69:

     What was distinctive about the strix was that […] it resembled an owl, or (to a lesser extent) a bat, being a winged, clawed creature, which flew by night and had a hideous screeching cry.

Latin

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Ancient Greek στρίξ (stríx, “screecher”), which also gave strī̆ga (“evil spirit, nightmare; vampire; witch”), itself likely of onomatopoeic origin and related to Latin strīdō (“to screech”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /striːks/, [s̠t̪riːks̠] or IPA^(key): /striks/, [s̠t̪rɪks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /striks/, [st̪riks]
• Note: the length of the vowel varied (similar to the related term), but in poetry it appears more often as long.

Noun

strī̆x f (genitive strī̆gis); third declension

1. A kind of owl, probably the screech-owl (considered a bird of ill omen).
   • 191 BCE, Plautus, Pseudolus‎^[1], archived from the original on 2022-10-08, act 3, scene 2, lines 30–32:

     eī hominēs cēnās ubi coquont, cum condiunt,
     nōn condīmentīs condiunt, sed strīgibus,
     vīvīs convīvīs intestīna quae exedint.

     Those people, when they cook dinners, when they season them,
     season them not with seasonings, but with screech-owls
     that would eat up the living guests' guts.
     (This is in iambic senarii.)

   • 16 BCE, Ovid, Amores‎^[2], archived from the original on 2017-01-06, 1.12, lines 17-20:

     Praebuit illa arbor miserō suspendia collō,
     Carnificī dīrās praebuit illa crucēs;
     Illa dedit turpēs raucīs būbōnibus umbrās,
     Vulturis in rāmīs et strĭgis ōva tulit.

     That tree offered a hanging to an unfortunate neck;
     it offered dreadful crosses to the executioner;
     it gave foul shade to hoarse owls;
     it held the vulture's and screech-owl's eggs on its branches.
     (This is in elegiac couplets.)

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 6.139–140:

     est illīs strĭgibus nōmen; sed nōminis huius
     causa, quod horrendum strīdere nocte solent.

     Screech-owls they're called; but the reason for this name is that they are wont to screech dreadfully at night.
     (This is an elegiac couplet; “strī̆x” was associated with and in fact indirectly relates to the Latin strīdō, “to screech”.)

   • c. 90 CE, Statius, Thebaid‎^[3], archived from the original on 2023-02-18, 3.506-512:

     nōn comes obscūrus tripodum, nōn fulminis ārdēns
     vector adest, flāvaeque sonāns avis unca Minervae
     nōn venit auguriīs melior; quīn vultur et altīs
     dēsuper accipitrēs exultāvēre rapīnīs.
     mōnstra volant: dīrae strīdunt in nūbe volucrēs,
     nocturnaeque gemunt strĭgĕs et fērālia būbō
     damna canēns.

     No the dark companion of the tripods [the raven], no burning lightning-bearer [the eagle]
     is there, and no hooting and clawed bird of golden-haired Minerva [the owl]
     comes auspiciously to the auguries; instead, a vulture and
     hawks up above have rejoiced at their lofty plunder.
     Evil omens are aflight: ominous birds shriek in the clouds,
     and the nocturnal screech-owls and the death-like horned owl cry,
     singing of loss.
     (This is in dactylic hexameters.)

   1. (by extension, according to popular belief) An evil spirit, a vampire or a harpy who sucked the blood of children and caused nightmares.

      Synonyms: volātica, malefica, venēfica, strī̆ga

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	strī̆x	strī̆gēs
Genitive	strī̆gis	strī̆gum
Dative	strī̆gī	strī̆gibus
Accusative	strī̆gem	strī̆gēs
Ablative	strī̆ge	strī̆gibus
Vocative	strī̆x	strī̆gēs

Related terms

• strīga

Descendants

• ⇒ Romanian: striga (“to call, shout”)
• ⇒ Sicilian: strìgula (“barn owl”)
• → English: strigine
• → Esperanto: strigo
• → Ido: strigo
• → Italian: strige
• → Portuguese: estrige
• → Spanish: estrige

Etymology 2

Possibly from a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia such as Celtiberian, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“to brush, strip, shear”) and cognate to Latin striga (“strip”).

Noun

strix f (genitive strigis); third declension

1. (Spain, hapax, dubious) A golden nugget.
   • Pliny, Natural History 33.62:

     Hispānia strigēs vocat aurī parvolās māssās.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	strix	strigēs
Genitive	strigis	strigum
Dative	strigī	strigibus
Accusative	strigem	strigēs
Ablative	strige	strigibus
Vocative	strix	strigēs

References

• “strix” on page 2016 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “strix”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German)

References

• “strix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “strix”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• strix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.