ménage

Alternative forms

• menage

Etymology

Borrowed from French ménage.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɛˈnɑːʒ/, /meɪˈnɑːʒ/

Noun

ménage (plural ménages)

1. A household; a domestic situation. [from 14th c.]
   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin 2011, p. 39:

     It smelled of ether and something else, possibly laudanum. I had never tried the mixture but it seemed to go pretty well with the Geiger ménage.

2. (now Scotland) A type of cooperative society whereby all members pay a regular sum of savings, or through which goods can be paid for in installments. [from 19th c.]
3. A group of people living together in a sexual relationship. [from 20th c.]

Anagrams

• Meegan, manege, manège

Etymology

From Old French manage, mainage, from manoir, maneir, maindre, from Latin manēre. The Old French forms maisnage, mesnage were influenced by the word maisnée, maisnede, from Vulgar Latin *mansionata (French maisonnée), from Latin mansiō (French maison).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me.naʒ/

• audio

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Noun

ménage m (plural ménages)

1. housework, housekeeping
2. household

Further reading

• “ménage” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• engame, engamé, magnée, manège, mangée, Mégane

Etymology

Borrowed from French ménage.

Noun

ménage m or f (in variation) (plural ménages)

1. domestic life
2. household (everyone who lives in a given house)
3. Clipping of ménage à trois.