menace

See also: menacé

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛnɪs/
• Rhymes: -ɛnɪs

Etymology 1

First attested ante 1300: from the Old French manace, menace, from the Vulgar Latin *minācia, from mināx, mināciae (“threatening; threats”), from minor (“I threaten”).

Noun

menace (plural menaces)

1. a perceived threat or danger.
   • Dryden

     the dark menace of the distant war.

2. the act of threatening.
3. an annoying and bothersome person.

Translations

perceived threat or danger

• Finnish: uhka (fi)

• German: Drohung (de), Bedrohung (de)

act of threatening

• Finnish: uhkailu (fi), uhkaus (fi)

• German: androhen (de), bedrohen (de)

annoying and bothersome person

• Finnish: ilkimys, ilkiö (fi), maanvaiva

• German: Plage (de), Landplage

References

• “menace, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]

Etymology 2

First attested in 1303: from Old French menacer, manecier, manechier and Anglo-Norman manasser, from the assumed Vulgar Latin *mināciāre, from Latin minācia, whence the noun.

Verb

menace (third-person singular simple present menaces, present participle menacing, simple past and past participle menaced) (transitive, intransitive)

1. (transitive) To make threats against (someone); to intimidate.

   to menace a country with war

   • Shakespeare

     My master […] did menace me with death.

2. To threaten (an evil to be inflicted).
   • Shakespeare

     By oath he menaced / Revenge upon the cardinal.

   • 1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, no. 170, Market Street, published 1808, OCLC 230944105, page 474:

     The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!

3. To endanger (someone or something); to imperil or jeopardize.

Translations

to make threats against, to intimidate

• Finnish: uhkailla (fi), pelotella (fi)

• Maori: whakahakahaka

References

• “menace, v.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]

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French

Etymology

From Old French manace, from Vulgar Latin *minācia (“threat”), from Latin mināx (“threatening”), mināciae (“threats”).

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

menace f (plural menaces)

1. threat

Related terms

• menacer

Verb

menace

1. first-person singular present indicative of menacer
2. third-person singular present indicative of menacer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of menacer
4. first-person singular present subjunctive of menacer
5. second-person singular imperative of menacer

Further reading

• “menace” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Friulian

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *minācia, from the plural of Latin mināx (“threatening”); cf. mināciae (“threats”).

Noun

menace f (plural menacis)

1. threat, menace

Related terms

• menaçâ