apprivoiser
French
Etymology
Inherited from Vulgar Latin *apprīvātiāre, from Latin prīvātus (“deprived; freed, released”), perfect passive participle of prīvō (“I bereave, deprive; I free, release”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/
audio (file)
Verb
apprivoiser
- (transitive) to tame
- Synonyms: dompter, dresser
- 1875, Ludovic Halévy, Henri Meilhac (lyrics), Georges Bizet (music), “Act I”, in Carmen:
- L’amour est un oiseau rebelle / Que nul ne peut apprivoiser, / […]
- Love is a rebellious bird / That none can tame, / […]
- 1943, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince:
- Viens jouer avec moi, lui proposa le petit prince. […] Je ne puis pas jouer avec toi, dit le renard. Je ne suis pas apprivoisé.
- "Come play with me," proposed the little prince [to him]. […] "I cannot play with you," said the fox. "I am not tamed."
- (transitive, figurative) to win over, to charm
- 1969, Pierre Delanoë (lyrics), Michael Wilshaw (music), “Les Champs-Élysées”, performed by Joe Dassin:
- J'avais envie de dire bonjour à n'importe qui / N'importe qui et ce fut toi, je t'ai dit n'importe quoi / Il suffisait de te parler, pour t'apprivoiser
- I was in the mood to say hello to someone, just anyone / and it was you, I told you anything / It was enough to talk to you, to charm you
-
Conjugation
Conjugation of apprivoiser (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | apprivoiser | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | apprivoisant /a.pʁi.vwa.zɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | apprivoisé /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/ | apprivoises /a.pʁi.vwaz/ | apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/ | apprivoisons /a.pʁi.vwa.zɔ̃/ | apprivoisez /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/ | apprivoisent /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
| imperfect | apprivoisais /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/ | apprivoisais /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/ | apprivoisait /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/ | apprivoisions /a.pʁi.vwa.zjɔ̃/ | apprivoisiez /a.pʁi.vwa.zje/ | apprivoisaient /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | apprivoisai /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/ | apprivoisas /a.pʁi.vwa.za/ | apprivoisa /a.pʁi.vwa.za/ | apprivoisâmes /a.pʁi.vwa.zam/ | apprivoisâtes /a.pʁi.vwa.zat/ | apprivoisèrent /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛʁ/ | |
| future | apprivoiserai /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁe/ | apprivoiseras /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁa/ | apprivoisera /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁa/ | apprivoiserons /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɔ̃/ | apprivoiserez /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁe/ | apprivoiseront /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | apprivoiserais /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɛ/ | apprivoiserais /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɛ/ | apprivoiserait /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɛ/ | apprivoiserions /a.pʁi.vwa.zə.ʁjɔ̃/ | apprivoiseriez /a.pʁi.vwa.zə.ʁje/ | apprivoiseraient /a.pʁi.vwaz.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 | apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/ | apprivoises /a.pʁi.vwaz/ | apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/ | apprivoisions /a.pʁi.vwa.zjɔ̃/ | apprivoisiez /a.pʁi.vwa.zje/ | apprivoisent /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
| imperfect2 | apprivoisasse /a.pʁi.vwa.zas/ | apprivoisasses /a.pʁi.vwa.zas/ | apprivoisât /a.pʁi.vwa.za/ | apprivoisassions /a.pʁi.vwa.za.sjɔ̃/ | apprivoisassiez /a.pʁi.vwa.za.sje/ | apprivoisassent /a.pʁi.vwa.zas/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/ | — | apprivoisons /a.pʁi.vwa.zɔ̃/ | apprivoisez /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/ | — | |
| 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). | |||||||
Derived terms
- apprivoisable
- apprivoiseur
Further reading
- “apprivoiser”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.