meurtrir
French
Etymology
From Middle French meurtrir (“to bruise, leave a mark on the skin, tear, hurt, murder”) from Old French meurtrir, murtrir (“to kill, slaughter, murder”), from Frankish *murþrijan (“to murder”), from Proto-Germanic *murþrijaną (“to kill, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *mrtro- (“murder, death”), from *mer-, *mor-, *mr- (“to die”). Akin to Old High German murdrjan, murdren, murdiren (“to kill, murder”) (whence modern German mördern (“to murder”)), Old English myrþrian (“to murder”), Old English morþor (“death, murder”). More at murder.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mœʁ.tʁiʁ/
Audio (file)
Verb
meurtrir
- (transitive, obsolete) to murder
- (transitive) to injure, hurt; to bruise, especially in reference to fruit; to leave a contusion
- (transitive) to hurt or injure someone's feelings
Usage notes
- The verb tuer is more commonly used for "to murder" but may be ambiguous as it also refers to non-deliberate killing
Conjugation
This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.
| infinitive | simple | meurtrir | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | meurtrissant /mœʁ.tʁi.sɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | meurtri /mœʁ.tʁi/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | meurtris /mœʁ.tʁi/ | meurtris /mœʁ.tʁi/ | meurtrit /mœʁ.tʁi/ | meurtrissons /mœʁ.tʁi.sɔ̃/ | meurtrissez /mœʁ.tʁi.se/ | meurtrissent /mœʁ.tʁis/ |
| imperfect | meurtrissais /mœʁ.tʁi.sɛ/ | meurtrissais /mœʁ.tʁi.sɛ/ | meurtrissait /mœʁ.tʁi.sɛ/ | meurtrissions /mœʁ.tʁi.sjɔ̃/ | meurtrissiez /mœʁ.tʁi.sje/ | meurtrissaient /mœʁ.tʁi.sɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | meurtris /mœʁ.tʁi/ | meurtris /mœʁ.tʁi/ | meurtrit /mœʁ.tʁi/ | meurtrîmes /mœʁ.tʁim/ | meurtrîtes /mœʁ.tʁit/ | meurtrirent /mœʁ.tʁiʁ/ | |
| future | meurtrirai /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁe/ | meurtriras /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁa/ | meurtrira /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁa/ | meurtrirons /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɔ̃/ | meurtrirez /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁe/ | meurtriront /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | meurtrirais /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɛ/ | meurtrirais /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɛ/ | meurtrirait /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɛ/ | meurtririons /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁjɔ̃/ | meurtririez /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁje/ | meurtriraient /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) | present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | meurtrisse /mœʁ.tʁis/ | meurtrisses /mœʁ.tʁis/ | meurtrisse /mœʁ.tʁis/ | meurtrissions /mœʁ.tʁi.sjɔ̃/ | meurtrissiez /mœʁ.tʁi.sje/ | meurtrissent /mœʁ.tʁis/ |
| imperfect2 | meurtrisse /mœʁ.tʁis/ | meurtrisses /mœʁ.tʁis/ | meurtrît /mœʁ.tʁi/ | meurtrissions /mœʁ.tʁi.sjɔ̃/ | meurtrissiez /mœʁ.tʁi.sje/ | meurtrissent /mœʁ.tʁis/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | meurtris /mœʁ.tʁi/ | — | meurtrissons /mœʁ.tʁi.sɔ̃/ | meurtrissez /mœʁ.tʁi.se/ | — | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Related terms
- meurtrissable
- meurtrissant
- meurtrissement
- meurtrissure
- meurtre
- meurtrier
Further reading
- “meurtrir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle French
Verb
meurtrir
- to murder