Menstruums

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A solvent or medium used in extracting or dissolving substances from mixtures or plants
2. The substance employed to facilitate the separation of compounds during chemical processes or extractions
3. A liquid that aids in the extraction of active ingredients from herbs or other materials in various scientific practices

Etymology: "Menstruums" is the plural of "menstruum," a term for a liquid used to dissolve or extract substances. The Latin word "mēnstruum" meant a monthly discharge, the menstrual flow, and it was built from "mēnsis," month, the same root that gives English "menses" and "menstrual." Its path from the body to the laboratory ran through a further sense in which the word was used for something that dissolves, so a liquid that takes substances out of a solid mixture was, in effect, a kind of monthly flow carried over to chemistry. The English word came from that Latin source, and the surprise is how little of the original body-related meaning survives in its modern use. Its meaning shifted from a bodily process tied to the lunar month to a practical term for a dissolving medium, a shift that happened within the history of chemistry rather than in everyday speech.