Word up Your French: rentrée
Put your suitcases away and set your alarm clock, September says it's time to go back to work! And as I realized there was no real equivalent of the word in the English language, I say let's take this moment to think about 'la rentrée'.
What exactly does it mean?
La rentrée (noun) is a real and serious concept. La rentrée refers to the start of a new school year and, incidentally, the end of summer break (les grandes vacances, in French - not to be confused with the others vacances, which are shorter, but no less important). In France, la rentrée thus takes place in early September.
Where does this amazing word come from?
The noun rentrée comes from French verb 'rentrer' which means either 'to bring in' or 'to go back'. You know how French is all about adding the prefix 're' in front of any verb to say the action is repeated? Well here, re- married the verb entrer (to go in) and their offspring is all France can think and talk about between 20th August and 15th September.
Now how am I supposed to use it?
As you might have guessed, la rentrée is a pretty big thing in France. Originally, I think it was all about farming: logically enough, you had to bring the hay in (rentrée des foins), before you could go back to school (rentrée scolaire). Over the time though, everyone decided that the word was catchy enough to be used in other contexts.
La rentrée scolaire (or rentrée des classes): when it's time for kids to stop lazing around and go back to school.
La rentrée littéraire: the comercial period starting in September during which tons of new novels are released and publishers' schedules go BOOM.
La rentrée politique: the moment where political matters seriously start again after what is commonly known as the période creuse (empty period) of the summer.
If you've been in France at this moment of the year, I'm willing to bet two ̶h̶u̶n̶d̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶p̶o̶u̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ carambars you have read the word 'rentrée' at least once on the front page of a newspaper or magazine.