menstruation

Etymology

It is formed from English menstruum + -ation, after Medieval Latin menstruatio, recorded in British sources from the late 12th century;^[2] compare Spanish menstruación and French menstruation.^[2] Barnhart thinks it was probably borrowed from the French noun and also formed directly from Late Latin mēnstruō (“to menstruate”).^[3][4] The Shorter Oxford takes it as menstruate with the suffix -ation.^[5][6] The Latin verb comes from mēnstrua (“the menses”), the neuter plural of mēnstruus (“monthly”),^[3][7] from mēnsis (“month”),^[4][7] which the American Heritage Dictionary files under Proto-Indo-European *mē-.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The monthly flow itself: Merriam-Webster's first known use is 1686,^[8] and Etymonline has the 1680s.^[4] The OED's first quotation is from J. Pringle in the Philosophical Transactions for 1753, published in 1754.^[2] Dictionary.com says 1770–80,^[6] and Barnhart 1776–84.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old English had monaðblot (“month-blood”),^[4] and Middle English had menstrūe from the late 14th century,^[4][9] from Old French menstrue and Latin menstruum.^[4][9] The adjective menstruate, borrowed from Latin, is recorded from about 1384, in the Wycliffite Bible, to 1475,^[2][3] but the verb "to have a period" comes later: Etymonline dates it to 1752 and the OED to 1795.^[4][2] Modern dictionaries define the word by the shedding of the lining of the uterus in women and in some other female primates.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1686 – the periodic discharge from the uterus.^[8] The OED's first quotation is from 1754.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The roughly monthly discharge of blood and tissue from the lining of the uterus in women who are not pregnant, from puberty to the menopause, and in some other female primates; also called menses or, in everyday language, a period.^[10][8][2]

Related words

• menstrual
• menstrual cycle
• menstruate
• menstruous
• menarche
• menopause
• menses
• menstruum
• month
• moon

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins