étrenner
French, verb/e.tʁɛ.ne/
étrenner is spelled É-T-R-E-N-N-E-R (8 letters) and appears about once in every 10 million words in written French, the 104,709th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Étrenner is a French verb meaning “to use/wear for the first time, to premiere; (of clothes) to break in; (figurative) to unveil, introduce” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Gratifier d’une étrenne, le premier jour de l’année”.
What does étrenner mean in English?
verb
- 1
to use/wear for the first time, to premiere; (of clothes) to break in; (figurative) to unveil, introduce
- 2
to be the guinea pig
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Gratifier d’une étrenne, le premier jour de l’année. 2. Plus ordinairement, favoriser un marchand en étant le premier de la journée à lui faire un achat ou un pauvre en étant le premier à lui faire l’aumône. 3. Faire usage d’une chose pour la première fois. 4. ou Recevoir, pour un marchand, le premier argent, de la journée ou de la semaine, de la vente de ses marchandises.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of étrenner
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- étrennant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- étrenné participle past
- étrenne first-person indicative present
- étrennes indicative present second-person
- étrennons first-person indicative plural
- étrennez indicative plural present
- étrennent indicative plural present
- étrennais first-person imperfect indicative
- étrennait imperfect indicative singular
- étrennions first-person imperfect indicative
- étrenniez imperfect indicative plural
- étrennaient imperfect indicative plural
- étrennai first-person historic indicative
- étrennas historic indicative past
- étrenna historic indicative past
- étrennâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce étrenner?
- /e.tʁɛ.ne/
- /e.tʁe.ne/
- \e.tʁe.ne\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is étrenner in French?
étrenner appears about once in every 10 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).