ménage

plural ménages · alternative menage · alternative obsolete menâge

1. collectiveA household; a domestic situation.First known use 17th c.

   It smelled of ether and something else, possibly laudanum. I had never tried the mixture but it seemed to go pretty well with the Geiger ménage.

   1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 39

   1 more example

   "Oh," cried her ladyship, "I see the whole ménage; they will take a first floor over a baker's shop, to save fire, and live upon red herrings during the week, with a mutton chop by way of meat on a Sunday."

   1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 167

2. ScotlandA type of cooperative society whereby all members pay a regular sum of savings, or through which goods can be paid for in installments.First known use 19th c.
3. A group of people in a sexual relationship; especially, such a group that live together; the relationship itself.First known use 20th c.