menstruum Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (archaic) a solvent
  2. noun the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause
    menstruation; flow; period; menses; catamenia.
    • the women were sickly and subject to excessive menstruation
    • a woman does not take the gout unless her menses be stopped"--Hippocrates
    • 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"--Aristotle

WordNet


Men"stru*um noun
Etymology
L. menstruus. See Menstruous.
Wordforms
plural E Menstruums L Menstrua
Definitions
  1. Any substance which dissolves a solid body; a solvent.
    The proper menstruum to dissolve metal. Bacon.
    All liquors are called menstruums which are used as dissolvents, or to extract the virtues of ingredients by infusion or decoction. Quincy.
    ✍ 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.

Webster 1913