menarche
nounUK /mɛˈnɑː.ki/ · US /ˈmɛˌnɑɹ.ki/
Etymology First attested 1900, from German Menarche, formed from meno- + -arche.
1
The onset of menstruation; a girl's first period.
- How old is she? Nine? Ten? The menarche is not far off – a hint of a bosom, poor child.1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise:
- 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.1978, Benjamin Walker, Encyclopedia of Metaphysical Medicine, Routledge, page 252:
1 more example
- 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.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 102:
- Derived terms
- menarchal, menarcheal, menarched, menarchial, menarchic, postmenarche