écarter
French
Etymology
According to the Trésor de la Langue Française, borrowed from Vulgar Latin *exquartō, from classical Latin quartus.[1]
The Vocabolario Etimologico of Pianigiani gives Vulgar Latin *excarptō, formed with the supine Latin *excarptum of Latin *excarpō or Latin excerpō (“choose, select”).[2] At the same time, Pianigiani adds an alternative etymology, though not fully explained, involving a relationship to Irish scar (past participle scartha), itself derived from Old Irish scaraid.
Compare Italian scartare and squartare; Spanish and Portuguese descartar; and English discard.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /e.kaʁ.te/
audio (file)
Verb
écarter
- to separate, move apart
- to spread, open (fingers, legs etc)
- to draw (curtains)
- to dismiss, rule out, turn down
- to remove a person from a job or position
- Après le scandale financier, le congrès a voté pour écarter le président du pouvoir.
- After the financial scandal, Congress voted to remove the president from power.
- (Louisiana) to lose
- (reflexive) to withdraw, diverge, deviate
- (reflexive, Louisiana) to stray
Conjugation
Conjugation of écarter (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | écarter | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | écartant /e.kaʁ.tɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | écarté /e.kaʁ.te/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | écarte /e.kaʁt/ | écartes /e.kaʁt/ | écarte /e.kaʁt/ | écartons /e.kaʁ.tɔ̃/ | écartez /e.kaʁ.te/ | écartent /e.kaʁt/ |
| imperfect | écartais /e.kaʁ.tɛ/ | écartais /e.kaʁ.tɛ/ | écartait /e.kaʁ.tɛ/ | écartions /e.kaʁ.tjɔ̃/ | écartiez /e.kaʁ.tje/ | écartaient /e.kaʁ.tɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | écartai /e.kaʁ.te/ | écartas /e.kaʁ.ta/ | écarta /e.kaʁ.ta/ | écartâmes /e.kaʁ.tam/ | écartâtes /e.kaʁ.tat/ | écartèrent /e.kaʁ.tɛʁ/ | |
| future | écarterai /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁe/ | écarteras /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁa/ | écartera /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁa/ | écarterons /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁɔ̃/ | écarterez /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁe/ | écarteront /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | écarterais /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁɛ/ | écarterais /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁɛ/ | écarterait /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁɛ/ | écarterions /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ | écarteriez /e.kaʁ.tə.ʁje/ | écarteraient /e.kaʁ.tə.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 | écarte /e.kaʁt/ | écartes /e.kaʁt/ | écarte /e.kaʁt/ | écartions /e.kaʁ.tjɔ̃/ | écartiez /e.kaʁ.tje/ | écartent /e.kaʁt/ |
| imperfect2 | écartasse /e.kaʁ.tas/ | écartasses /e.kaʁ.tas/ | écartât /e.kaʁ.ta/ | écartassions /e.kaʁ.ta.sjɔ̃/ | écartassiez /e.kaʁ.ta.sje/ | écartassent /e.kaʁ.tas/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | écarte /e.kaʁt/ | — | écartons /e.kaʁ.tɔ̃/ | écartez /e.kaʁ.te/ | — | |
| 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
- écarter les cuisses
References
- “écarter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
- Pianigiani, Ottorino (1907), “scartare”, in Vocabolario etimologico della lingua italiana (in Italian), Rome: Albrighi & Segati
Further reading
- “écarter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
- “écarter” in Dictionnaire Français en ligne Larousse.
- “écarter” in Dico en ligne Le Robert.
Anagrams
- cratère, recréât, tercera