English

Alternative forms

• menage

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.]

French

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, from Latin mansiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /menaʒ/

Noun

ménage m ‎(plural ménages)

1. housework, housekeeping
2. household

Related terms

• faire le ménage
• faire bon ménage
• femme de ménage
• ménage à trois
• ménager

Anagrams

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

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowing 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. Short for ménage à trois.