Plural of detenue; women or girls who are held in custody or kept in confinement, especially in legal or institutional settings.
From French détenue, feminine form of détenu (detained person), derived from détenir meaning 'to hold back' or 'to detain,' from Latin detinere (de- + tenere, to hold).
During the French Revolution and other upheavals, detenues became a critical term in legal records—the distinction between detenu and detenue helped track who was imprisoned, and these gendered forms reveal how bureaucracy literally recorded human suffering.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.