menarche

See also: Menarche

English

Etymology

First attested 1900, from German Menarche, formed from New Latin meno- (“menstruation”), from Attic Greek μήν (mḗn, “month”) + Ancient Greek ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɛˈnɑːki/

Noun

menarche (plural menarches)

1. The onset of menstruation; a girl's first period.

   Synonym: menophania

   Antonym: menopause

   Coordinate terms: spermarche, thelarche

   • 1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise:

     How old is she? Nine? Ten? The menarche is not far off – a hint of a bosom, poor child.

   • 1978, Benjamin Walker, Encyclopedia of Metaphysical Medicine, Routledge, page 252:

     The most potent and indeed dangerous of all menstrual blood was the menarche, the first day's flow of the first menstruation of a virgin girl.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 102:

     Initiation is imagined, but the initiate is not the young girl in menarche, about to be wed to the moon, but a young man about to become a great hunter.

Translations

first menstruation

• Basque: menarkia
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 初潮 (zh) (chūcháo), 初經／初经 (chūjīng)

• Finnish: menarke
• French: ménarche (fr) f
• German: Menarche (de) f
• Icelandic: fyrstu tíðir f or pl
• Italian: menarca (it) m
• Japanese: 初潮 (ja) (しょちょう, shochō), 初経 (ja) (しょけい, shokei)
• Portuguese: menarca (pt) f
• Russian: мена́рхе (ru) n (menárxe), пе́рвая менструа́ция f (pérvaja menstruácija)
• Spanish: menarquia f
• Swedish: menarche c
• Tagalog: abot-tubo

Further reading

• menarche on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Hermance