méninge

Forms

méninge f (plural méninges)^[1] Middle French miringue (about 1370), a garbled form corrected to méninge by 1478.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin meninga, a word of late medical Latin,^[2][3][4] which is from Ancient Greek μῆνιγξ (mêninx, “membrane”), taken from its accusative.^[5][4][6] In Greek the word meant a skin or membrane and especially the membrane around the brain and spinal cord.^[3][2] Rey calls the Greek term obscure in origin; one hypothesis derives it from an Indo-European root meaning “flesh, meat”, the root of membre.^[3] Wiktionary treats the French word as a learned borrowing straight from the Greek.^[1]

Bloch and Wartburg date the word only to 1532;^[5] the TLFi and the Grand Robert find it in the 14th century, first in the garbled form Middle French miringue.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1370 as miringue in Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, for each of the membranes that wrap the brain; the form méninge appears in 1478 in the same author's Guidon de la practique en cyrurgie.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word was borrowed with its anatomical sense and kept it.^[3] Littré records that it could also be used of the dure-mère alone.^[7]

From 1860 the plural méninges entered familiar speech for the brain or the mind, first in Sainte-Beuve.^[2][3] It gave phrases about hard thinking: s'écarteler les méninges (1908), now gone, and se casser les méninges (Céline, 1936);^[2][3] the Petit Robert and the GLLF also give se creuser les méninges.^[6][8]

The adjective méningé followed in 1776 and méningite in 1829, after méningité (1793).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1370 – Miringue appears in Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[2][3]
• 1478 – The corrected form méninge is recorded.^[2][3][4]
• 1532 – Bloch and Wartburg's first date for the word.^[5]
• 1776 – The adjective méningé is derived.^[3]
• 1829 – Méningite is recorded.^[3][5]
• 1860 – The plural is used for the brain or mind.^[2][3]
• 1908 – S'écarteler les méninges is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1936 – Céline uses se casser les méninges.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) Each of the three membranes that surround the brain and the spinal cord: the dure-mère, the arachnoïde and the pie-mère.^[2][6][7]
2. (familiar, plural) The brain, the mind, one's wits: se creuser les méninges, se casser les méninges “to rack one's brains”.^[2][6][8]

Word family

• méningite
• méningé

Related words

• dure-mère
• pie-mère
• arachnoïde

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse