climacteric

English

Etymology

From Latin clīmactēricus, from Koine Greek κλιμακτηρικός (klimaktērikós, “scale, progression, gradation”), from κλιμακτήρ (klimaktḗr).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /klʌɪmakˈtɛɹɪk/, /klʌɪˈmaktəɹɪk/

Adjective

climacteric (comparative more climacteric, superlative most climacteric)

1. Pertaining to any of several supposedly critical years of a person's life. [from 17th c.]
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 596:

     Closely parallel to the belief in unlucky days was the notion of climacteric years, those periodic dates in a man's life which were potential turning-points in his health and fortune.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Asari: Biology Codex entry:

     Asari pass through three climacteric life stages, marked by biochemical and physiological changes. The Maiden stage begins at birth and is marked by the drive to explore and experience. Most young asari are curious and restless. The Matron stage of life begins around the age of 350, though it can be triggered earlier if the individual melds frequently. This period is marked by a desire to settle in one area and raise children. The Matriarch stage begins around 700, or earlier if the individual melds rarely. Matriarchs become active in their community as sages and councilors, dispensing wisdom from centuries of experience.

2. Critical or crucial; decisive. [from 17th c.]
   • 1991 May 4, Mary Dowd, “Risky Business”, in Gay Community News, page 7:

     The seeds of a climateric insurrection against the hypocrisy of cultural norms.

3. (medicine) Relating to a period of physiological change during middle age; especially, menopausal. [from 18th c.]
4. Climactic. [from 18th c.]

Derived terms

• postclimacteric
• preclimacteric

Translations

critical, crucial

• Greek:

  Ancient: κλιμακτηρικός (klimaktērikós)

• Russian: критический (ru) (kritičeskij), опасный (ru) (opasnyj), напряжённый (ru) (naprjažónnyj), решающий (ru) (rešajuščij), переломный (ru) (perelomnyj)

relating to a period of physiological change during middle age

• Russian: климактерический (ru) (klimakteričeskij)

Noun

climacteric (plural climacterics)

1. A critical stage or decisive point; a turning point. [from 17th c.]
   • 1829, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:

     It is your lot, as it was mine, to live during one of the grand climacterics of the world.

   • Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since, p. 66-67.

     [H]e was in his grand climacterick, with a florid brow, and a step like youthful agility. Sigourney, Lydia.

   • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC:

     I should hardly yield my rigid fibers to be regenerated by them; nor begin, in my grand climacteric, to squall in their new accents, or to stammer, in my second cradle, the elemental sounds of their barbarous metaphysics.

2. A period in human life in which some great change is supposed to take place, calculated in different ways by different authorities (often identified as every seventh or ninth year). [from 17th c.]
3. (medicine) The period of life that leads up to and follows the end of menstruation in women; the menopause. [from 18th c.]
   • 1998, Roger N J Smith, John W. W. Studd, The Menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy, page 8:

     Once women have traversed the turmoil of the climacteric years and reached the hormonal steady-state of the post-menopause, there is almost certainly no increase in the incidence of depression.

Derived terms

• grand climacteric, great climacteric

Translations

3. The period of life that leads up to and follows the end of menstruation in women

• German: Klimakterium (de) n

See also

• menopausal

References

• “climacteric”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.