menstruation

Forms

menstruation f (plural menstruations)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French menstrues + -ation.^[2][3][4] Bloch and Wartburg list it among the derivatives of that noun.^[5] The Petit Robert instead points straight to the Latin plural.^[6]

The base noun was borrowed in medicine in 1314 from Latin menstrua (“menses”), the neuter plural of menstruus (“monthly”), from mēnsis (“month”); the Latin use was probably modelled on a Greek neuter plural derived from the word for “month”.^[7][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1761, in Jean Astruc's Traité des maladies des femmes, for the monthly discharge of blood and for the period in which it occurs.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Coined as a medical term, menstruation took over from the older menstrues in learned and medical language;^[7] menstrues has since become archaic or marked.^[7] The adjective menstruel, borrowed much earlier (1268) from Latin, remains in common use beside it.^[7]

Littré still gave it only as a medical term for the flow of the menses.^[9] Modern dictionaries define it both as the physiological phenomenon, from puberty to the menopause, and as the bleeding itself, a synonym of règles.^[2][6][8]

Timeline

• 1314 – The base menstrues is borrowed from Latin in Henri de Mondeville's Chirurgie.^[2][7]
• 1761 – Menstruation appears in Astruc's treatise on women's diseases.^[2][5][8]
• 1873 – Littré records it as a medical term.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (physiology) Menstruation, the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of a woman who is not pregnant, between puberty and menopause.^[2][6][8]
2. The recurring period during which this discharge takes place.^[8][1]

Related words

• menstrues
• menstruel
• règles
• Latin mēnsis

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette