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).

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

1. to murder