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ménage à trois

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French ménage à trois (literally household of three).

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˌmeɪnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/, /ˌmɛnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/, /məˌnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌmeɪnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/, /ˌmɛnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/, /məˌnɑːʒ ɑː ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/, /məˌnɑːʒeɪ ˈt(ɹ)wɑː/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɑː

Noun

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ménage à trois (plural ménages à trois)

  1. A household or relationship whereby three people live together as lovers.
    • 1856, Richard F. Burton, First Footsteps in East Africa, Könemann, published 2000, page 105:
      Old men frequently marry young girls, but then the portion is high and the ménage à trois common.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter 1, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      "We are certainly going to be happy—we three—in this innocent ménage à trois," she said. "I don't know what more you two men could ask for—or I, either—or the children or Eileen.
    • 1920, Anthony Hope, Lucinda[1]:
      [] if she frowned—and there could be no doubt that she was frowning now—what lay before him, before them? A scamped and mean ménage à trois, existence eked out with the aid of Mrs. Knyvett’s scanty resources, and soured by her laments!
    • 2001, Sheila Isenberg, A Hero of Our Own, page 134:
      For a while, he lived in a ménage à trois with the poet Paul Eluard and his wife, Gala Diakonova (who would later marry Salvador Dali).
    • 2006, Gene Lees, Portrait of Johnny, page 56:
      I'm not a prude and I wasn't a prude then, but I couldn't see living in a ménage à trois unless the third member were a girl.
  2. (sex) A sexual act or experience involving three people; a threesome.
    Synonym: three-way
    Hyponyms: devil's threesome, devil's triangle, devil's threeway
    • 1996, Cyrinda Foxe, in McNeil & McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, page 134:
      David and Angela and I had a ménage à trois for about five minutes, but then I made her leave because David and I were gonna play.
    • 1999 November 15, John Cloud, “Henry & Mary & Janet &…”, in Time:
      No, the two guys don't go for each other; the triad tried a ménage à trois once but stopped because Chris thought it was icky.

Hypernyms

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Coordinate terms

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Translations

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See also

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French

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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ménage à trois m (plural ménages à trois)

  1. ménage à trois
    Near-synonyms: triangle amoureux, trouple
  2. ménage à trois; a household of three
  3. a trio

Descendants

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See also

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Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from French ménage à trois (literally household of three).

Noun

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ménage à trois f or m (plural ménages à trois)

  1. (sex) ménage à trois; threesome (a sexual activity involving three people)
    Synonym: ménage