Trans: The Middle Ages had another word for it

HISTORY ECHOES. Sometimes, it’s a place that echoes across time. Sometimes, it’s a turn of phrase. Consider these two statements. The first is by John Wycliffe, the fourteenth-century philosopher and heresiarch:

So about this white and round priest-consecrated thing, similar to the non-sacred host, which afterwards the priest breaks and eats, and which receives transmutations that a non-consecrated host [would receive], as perhaps being eaten by a mouse, putrefaction over time, with similar transmutations, of this white thing first let there be an explanation.

The second is by J. K. Rowling, the twenty-first century novelist:

“People who menstruate.” I’m sure there used to be a word for these people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?

These statements are separated by more