Mensiversary, not monthiversary

I’m not sure what it is, but I have seen an increase in the use of the nonesensical word monthiversary lately. It’s used to refer to a monthly celebration of a certain date (This is our third monthiversary).

The problem is that there is already a word for monthly celebrations. It’s mensiversary.

Sure, the naysayers will claim you can’t find mensiversary in the dictionary. But consider where you can find it:

  1. Page 250 of the 1835 book Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh
  2. Page 312 of an 1883 issue of the journal Notes and Queries
  3. Page 39 of an 1896 issue of The Yellow Book
  4. Page 266 of a 1920 issue of The Journal of English and Germanic Philology
  5. Page 409 of the 1905 book Catholic world
  6. The 2 March 1925 issue of Time Magazine
  7. Several novels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Sure, mensiversary isn’t common (if it were, no one would have made up a new word to mean the same thing), but it certainly came first and shows a widespread usage among different authors (including academics).

By Kim Siever

I am a copywriter and copyeditor. I blog on writing and social media tips mostly, but I sometimes throw in my thoughts about running a small business. Follow me on Twitter at @hotpepper.