Vocabulaire des objets du jardin en français

What does “serre” mean in French?

Une serre is a greenhouse, and it comes straight from serrer, to squeeze or close in: glass shut around plants, holding the warm air. The same image gives l’effet de serre, the greenhouse effect. One small verb gives a garden word and a piece of science vocabulary at the same time.

Serrer turns up everywhere once you notice it: serrer la main is to shake hands (literally to squeeze it), un emploi du temps serré is a tight schedule, un café serré is a short strong espresso, un serre-tête is a headband. Birds of prey have des serres too — talons, the things that grip. The garden sense is recorded from the seventeenth century.