ornière

Alteration, under the influence of orne, of Old French ordiere, inherited from Vulgar Latin *orbitaria, from Latin orbita.

• IPA^(key): /ɔʁ.njɛʁ/

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ornière f (plural ornières)

1. rut (groove in a road)
   • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […]‎^[1], Paris: Michel Lévy Frères:

     Ils descendirent. Rodolphe attacha les chevaux. Elle allait devant, sur la mousse, entre les ornières.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (figurative) habit; routine

   sortir de l'ornière ― get out of a rut

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