marronnier

French

Etymology

marron +‎ -ier

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ʁɔ.nje/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

marronnier m (plural marronniers)

1. chestnut tree
2. horse-chestnut tree
3. (newsmedia, figurative) old chestnut (A news item which, like chestnut fruits, tends to come back every year at the same time. Implies that the news is a fill-in, that might as well have been written in advance.)

Further reading

• “marronnier”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.