Meninge

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A protective membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord in vertebrates
2. A type of membrane that serves as a protective layer covering the brain and spinal cord in animals with a backbone
3. This membrane functions to safeguard vital neural structures in the central nervous system of vertebrates

Etymology: "Meninge" is the singular form of "meninges," the three thin membranes that wrap the brain and spinal cord. The plural is the older form. It comes from Ancient Greek "mēninges," the plural of "mēninx," which meant a membrane or thin skin. Greek physicians, including the writers of the Hippocratic corpus, used it for the coverings of the brain, and Latin writers adopted it as "meninx." English speakers mostly meet the plural, and the singular is rare. Because "meninges" ends in "-es," many writers treated it as a plural and created a singular, "meninge," by dropping the ending. That singular is an English back-formation, not a Greek or Latin word. The classical singular "meninx" survives in technical writing, but most anatomists use "meninx" or simply "meninge" as a convenient singular, and "meninges" for the whole set.