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noun, feminine

gêne

/ʒɛn/

noun, feminine/ʒɛn/plural: gênes

embarrassment; discomfort, inconvenience

Inherited from Middle French gehenne (spelling influenced by géhenne), from Old French gehine (“punishment resulting from admission of guilt”), from gehir, geïr (“to admit, confess, acknowledge”), from Frankish *jehhjan (“to say, confess”), from Proto-Germanic *jehaną (“to affirm, say”), from Proto-Indo-European *yek- (“to speak”).