New Year's gifts
Preserved but no longer current.
The giving of presents at this time was a custom among both the Greeks and the Romans, the latter calling them stretm, whence the French term etrenne (a New Year's gift). Nonius Marcellus says that Tatius, King of the Sabines, was presented with some branches of trees cut from the forest sacred to the goddess Strenia (strength), on New Year's Day, and from this incident the custom arose.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “New Year's gifts” mean?
The giving of presents at this time was a custom among both the Greeks and the Romans, the latter calling them stretm, whence the French term etrenne (a New Year's gift). Nonius Marcellus says that Tatius, King of the Sabines, was presented with some branches of trees cut from the forest sacred to the goddess Strenia (strength), on New Year's Day, and from this incident the custom arose.
Is “New Year's gifts” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.