cutanées

Cutannées is the feminine plural form of the French adjective cutané, meaning relating to the skin. In medical French, cutané is the standard adjective used to describe structures or conditions associated with the integument, and cutanées appears mainly in compound noun phrases where the noun itself is understood, such as affections cutanées or lésions cutanées. The term is therefore primarily encountered in dermatology, anatomy, and pathology texts rather than in everyday language.

Etymology and form: cutané ultimately derives from the Latin cutis, meaning skin, and enters French with two gendered forms: cutané (masculine), cutanée (feminine). The feminine plural cutanées agrees with feminine plural nouns or with elliptical uses where the noun is implied, although in practice the phrase is rarely used stand-alone and is usually part of a larger noun group.

Usage and nuance: Because French typically prefers explicit noun phrases, cutanées often appears in medical writing as a modifier rather than as a standalone noun. Common collocations include pathologies cutanées, maladies cutanées, or structures cutanées, with more specific terms naming parts of the skin such as épiderme, derme, and hypoderme. The English equivalent is cutaneous.

Related terms: The base adjective cutané forms related expressions in French, and in English, the equivalent term is cutaneous. In dermatology, precision is achieved by pairing cutané with explicit nouns (peau, épiderme, derm), rather than relying on cutanées alone.