mense

English

Etymology

From earlier mensk, from Middle English menske (“courtesy, honour”), from Old English mennisċu (“the human condition, humanity”) and/or Old Norse menska (“humanity”). More at mennish, mensch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛns/

Noun

mense (countable and uncountable, plural menses)

1. Property, owndom; possessions.
2. (UK, dialect) Decency; propriety; civility.
   • 1812, John Bell, Rhymes of Northern Bards: Being a Curious Collection of Old and New Songs and Poems, Peculiar to the Counties of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumberland, and Durham, page 185:

     ... But never a soul had the mense to come near them, […]

   • 1842, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Information for the People, page 796:

     Little mense to the cheeks to bite aff the nose […]

   • 1871, Henry Scott Riddell, The Poetical Works of Henry Scott Riddell, page 141:

     For she had baked a crumpie cake And butter scones, for mense's sake, To entertain her lodger.

   • 1895, William Dunbar, Dunbar: Being a Selection from the Poems of an Old Makar, page 31:

     Be seen with men of mense, but turn aside From swicks and sweeps, the silly and the low  […]

   • 1904, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Men of the Moss-hags: Being a History of Adventure Taken from the Papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway, page 126:

     ... ye'll hae the sense and the mense to keep a calm sough, […]

3. (UK, dialect) A large amount.
   • 1841, Richard Winter Hamilton, Nugae Literariae: Prose and Verse, page 356:

     There is not a mense of snow in "smoky Leeds,"

   • 1857, James Stewart, Sketches of Scottish Character, and Other Poems. The Late James Steward. With a Memoir of the Author, page 22:

     He has a mense o' pure nonsense,

Derived terms

• menseful
• menseless

Verb

mense (third-person singular simple present menses, present participle mensing, simple past and past participle mensed)

1. To adorn, bring honour to; grace.

Anagrams

• Semen, menes, mesen, mesne, neems, semen

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

mense

1. plural of mens: people

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mēnsa. Compare the inherited doublet moise, which acquired a technical sense.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɑ̃s/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

mense f (plural menses)

1. (archaic) table
2. Ecclesiastical revenue, especially that of an abbey

Related terms

• commensal

Further reading

• “mense”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Interlingua

Etymology

From Latin mensis (“month”).

Noun

mense (plural menses)

1. month

See also

• januario
• februario
• martio
• april
• maio
• junio
• julio
• augusto
• septembre
• octobre
• novembre
• decembre

Italian

Noun

mense f

1. plural of mensa

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmẽː.sɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛn.se]

Noun

mēnse

1. ablative singular of mēnsis

Participle

mēnse

1. vocative masculine singular of mēnsus

Anagrams

• semen