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Gallia est omnis dīvīsa in partēs trēs, quārum ūnam incolunt Belgae.

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Contents (5 senses)
L&S Lewis & Short (1)
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Text provided under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license by the Perseus Digital Library, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Digitized from Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary (1879). Data originally from PerseusDL/lexica and accessed from github.com/nkprasad12/lexica.
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• paelex (pēlex, and, only in inscriptions, pellex), icis, f. [akin to Sanscr. pallavaka, girl; Gr. παλλακίς, concubine], a kept mistress, concubine of a married man.
  1. I. Lit.: antiqui proprie eam pelicem nominabant, quae uxorem habenti nubebat. Cui generi mulierum etiam poena constituta est a Numā Pompilio hāc lege: paelex aram Junonis ne tangito, etc., Paul. ex Fest. p. 222 Müll.; cf. Gell. 4, 3, 3: libro Memorialium Masurius scribit: pelicem apud antiquos eam habitam, quae, cum uxor non esset, cum aliquo tamen vivebat eamque nunc vero nomine amicam, paulo honestiore concubinam appellari, Dig. 50, 16, 144; Plaut. Cist. 1, 1, 39; id. Merc. 4, 1, 24 et saep.—With gen. of the wronged wife: filiae paelex, Cic. Clu. 70, 199; id. Or. 30, 108: tune eris et matris paelex et adultera patris? Ov. M. 10, 347: illa Jovis magni paelex, metuenda sorori, id. H. 14, 95: fugit (Medea) ulta paelicem, Magni Creontis filiam, Hor. Epod. 5, 63: horrida, Juv. 2, 57.— Poet., of the cows, as rivals of Pasiphaë, who had become enamoured of a bull, Ov. A. A. 1, 321.—
  2. II. Transf.
    1. A. A kept mistress, concubine, in gen. (post-class.): virginem constupratam servo suo paelicem dederat, Curt. 10, 1, 5: Artaxerxi regi Persarum ex paelicibus centum et quindecim filii fuere, Just. 10, 1, 1; cf.: Granius Flaccus scribit, pelicem quosdam vocare eam, quae uxoris loco sine nuptiis in domo sit. Dig. 50, 16, 144.—
    2. B. A male prostitute (postclass.), Paul. ex Fest. p. 222 Müll.: Dolabella eum (Caesarem) pelicem reginae (appellavit), as the favorite of King Nicomedes, Suet. Caes. 49; in apposition, pelices ministri, Mart. 12, 97, 3.—*
    3. C. Comically, a substitute: quoties pelex culcita facta mea est (sc. matellae), Mart. 14, 119, 2.