essaimer

French

Etymology

From essaim (“swarm”) +‎ -er. Cf. older échemer. Less likely from Vulgar Latin exāminō, exāmināre, from Latin exāmen. Compare Italian sciamare, Catalan eixamar, Spanish enjambrar, Portuguese enxamear.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.sɛ.me/, /e.se.me/

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio (CAN)

  (file)

Verb

essaimer

1. (of bees) to swarm

   Ces abeilles ont essaimé.

   Those bees have swarmed.

2. (figuratively, of people) to swarm (to go in a massive group)

   Synonym: faire souche

Conjugation

Conjugation of essaimer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	essaimer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	essaimant /e.sɛ.mɑ̃/ or /e.se.mɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		essaimé /e.sɛ.me/ or /e.se.me/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	essaime /e.sɛm/	essaimes /e.sɛm/	essaime /e.sɛm/	essaimons /e.sɛ.mɔ̃/ or /e.se.mɔ̃/	essaimez /e.sɛ.me/ or /e.se.me/	essaiment /e.sɛm/
	imperfect	essaimais /e.sɛ.mɛ/ or /e.se.mɛ/	essaimais /e.sɛ.mɛ/ or /e.se.mɛ/	essaimait /e.sɛ.mɛ/ or /e.se.mɛ/	essaimions /e.sɛ.mjɔ̃/ or /e.se.mjɔ̃/	essaimiez /e.sɛ.mje/ or /e.se.mje/	essaimaient /e.sɛ.mɛ/ or /e.se.mɛ/
	past historic2	essaimai /e.sɛ.me/ or /e.se.me/	essaimas /e.sɛ.ma/ or /e.se.ma/	essaima /e.sɛ.ma/ or /e.se.ma/	essaimâmes /e.sɛ.mam/ or /e.se.mam/	essaimâtes /e.sɛ.mat/ or /e.se.mat/	essaimèrent /e.sɛ.mɛʁ/ or /e.se.mɛʁ/
	future	essaimerai /e.sɛm.ʁe/	essaimeras /e.sɛm.ʁa/	essaimera /e.sɛm.ʁa/	essaimerons /e.sɛm.ʁɔ̃/	essaimerez /e.sɛm.ʁe/	essaimeront /e.sɛm.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	essaimerais /e.sɛm.ʁɛ/	essaimerais /e.sɛm.ʁɛ/	essaimerait /e.sɛm.ʁɛ/	essaimerions /e.sɛ.mə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /e.se.mə.ʁjɔ̃/	essaimeriez /e.sɛ.mə.ʁje/ or /e.se.mə.ʁje/	essaimeraient /e.sɛm.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	essaime /e.sɛm/	essaimes /e.sɛm/	essaime /e.sɛm/	essaimions /e.sɛ.mjɔ̃/ or /e.se.mjɔ̃/	essaimiez /e.sɛ.mje/ or /e.se.mje/	essaiment /e.sɛm/
	imperfect2	essaimasse /e.sɛ.mas/ or /e.se.mas/	essaimasses /e.sɛ.mas/ or /e.se.mas/	essaimât /e.sɛ.ma/ or /e.se.ma/	essaimassions /e.sɛ.ma.sjɔ̃/ or /e.se.ma.sjɔ̃/	essaimassiez /e.sɛ.ma.sje/ or /e.se.ma.sje/	essaimassent /e.sɛ.mas/ or /e.se.mas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	essaime /e.sɛm/	—	essaimons /e.sɛ.mɔ̃/ or /e.se.mɔ̃/	essaimez /e.sɛ.me/ or /e.se.me/	—
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).

Derived terms

• essaimage

Further reading

• “essaimer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• mairesse, sèmerais, sériâmes