Word Study
menstruum
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun menstruum has 2 senses
- menstruum(n = noun.substance) Array - (archaic) a solvent; Array is a kind of dissolvent, dissolver, dissolving agent, resolvent, solvent
- menstruum(n = noun.process) catamenia, flow, menses, menstruation, period - the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause; "the women were sickly and subject to excessive menstruation"; "a woman does not take the gout unless her menses be stopped"; "the semen begins to appear in males and to be emitted at the same time of life that the catamenia begin to flow in females" is a kind of discharge, emission, expelling
has particulars: hypermenorrhea, menorrhagia, oligomenorrhea
CIDE DICTIONARY
menstruum, n. [L. menstruus. See Menstruous.].
Any substance which dissolves a solid body; a solvent. [1913 Webster]
" The use is supposed to have originated in some notion of the old chemists about the influence of the moon in the preparation of dissolvents." Johnson.
[1913 Webster]
"The proper menstruum to dissolve metal."
[1913 Webster]
"All liquors are called menstruums which are used as dissolvents, or to extract the virtues of ingredients by infusion or decoction."
[1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
menstruum, n. (pl. menstrua) a solvent.
Etymology
ME f. L, neut. of menstruus monthly f. mensis month f. the alchemical parallel between transmutation into gold and the supposed action of menses on the ovum
ROGET THESAURUS
menstruum
Liquefaction
N liquefaction, liquescence, liquescency, melting, colliquation, colliquefaction, thaw, liquation, deliquation, deliquescence, lixiviation, dissolution, solution, apozem, lixivium, infusion, flux, solvent, menstruum, alkahest, liquefied, liquescent, liquefiable, deliquescent, soluble, colliquative.
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