meurtrir

French

Etymology

Inherited 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

  1. (transitive, obsolete) to murder
  2. (transitive) to injure, hurt; to bruise, especially in reference to fruit; to leave a contusion
  3. (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-.

Conjugation of meurtrir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
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 – tu – nous vous –
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:
  • past historic → present perfect
  • past anterior → pluperfect
  • imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive
  • pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive

(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

Middle French

Verb

meurtrir

  1. to murder
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