CLIMACTERIC (from the Gr. KAupaKr'Jp, the

See also:

• RUNG

rung or step of a aXiµaE or

See also:

• LADDER, (0. Eng. hlaeder; of Teutonic origin, cf. Dutch leer, Ger. Leiter; the ultimate origin is in the root seen in " lean," Or. KNiµat)

ladder)  , a critical period in human life; in a medical sense, the period known as the " change of life," marked in women by the menopause . Certain ages, especially those which are multiples of seven or nine, have been superstitiously regarded as particularly critical; thus the sixty-third and the eighty-first year of life have been called the " grand climacteric." The word is also used, generally, of any turning-point in the history of a nation, a career or the like .