menacer

English

Etymology

menace +‎ -er

Noun

menacer (plural menacers)

1. One who menaces.
   • 1921, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan the Terrible:

     Like a frightened deer Pan-at-lee cast a single startled look at these menacers of her freedom and leaped quickly toward the bushes in an effort to escape […]

Anagrams

• acremen

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French menacier, manecier, from Vulgar Latin *mināciāre, from Latin minācia (“threat”). Equivalent to menace +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mə.na.se/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

menacer (transitive)

1. to threaten

   Synonym: proférer des menaces à l’encontre de

   • 2011, Andrew Klavan, Un tout autre homme, Calmann-Lévy:

     Une fois, il avait menacé d’intervenir pendant le service religieux.

     Once, he had threatened to intervene during the religious service.

   • 2013, Justine Augier, Jérusalem, Actes Sud Littérature:

     Délibérément le garçon envoie le ballon très haut, dans la direction de la femme qui continue de marcher, imperturbable tandis que le ballon redescend, menace de tomber sur elle ou son enfant.

     The boy deliberately sends the ball very high, towards the woman who keeps one walking, imperturbable, while the ball comes down, threatening to fall on her or her child.

2. to endanger, to jeopardise

   Synonym: mettre en péril

Conjugation

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which 'c' is softened to a 'ç' before the vowels 'a' and 'o'.

Conjugation of menacer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	menacer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	menaçant /mə.na.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		menacé /mə.na.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	menace /mə.nas/	menaces /mə.nas/	menace /mə.nas/	menaçons /mə.na.sɔ̃/	menacez /mə.na.se/	menacent /mə.nas/
	imperfect	menaçais /mə.na.sɛ/	menaçais /mə.na.sɛ/	menaçait /mə.na.sɛ/	menacions /mə.na.sjɔ̃/	menaciez /mə.na.sje/	menaçaient /mə.na.sɛ/
	past historic2	menaçai /mə.na.se/	menaças /mə.na.sa/	menaça /mə.na.sa/	menaçâmes /mə.na.sam/	menaçâtes /mə.na.sat/	menacèrent /mə.na.sɛʁ/
	future	menacerai /mə.na.sʁe/	menaceras /mə.na.sʁa/	menacera /mə.na.sʁa/	menacerons /mə.na.sʁɔ̃/	menacerez /mə.na.sʁe/	menaceront /mə.na.sʁɔ̃/
	conditional	menacerais /mə.na.sʁɛ/	menacerais /mə.na.sʁɛ/	menacerait /mə.na.sʁɛ/	menacerions /mə.na.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	menaceriez /mə.na.sə.ʁje/	menaceraient /mə.na.sʁɛ/
(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	menace /mə.nas/	menaces /mə.nas/	menace /mə.nas/	menacions /mə.na.sjɔ̃/	menaciez /mə.na.sje/	menacent /mə.nas/
	imperfect2	menaçasse /mə.na.sas/	menaçasses /mə.na.sas/	menaçât /mə.na.sa/	menaçassions /mə.na.sa.sjɔ̃/	menaçassiez /mə.na.sa.sje/	menaçassent /mə.na.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	menace /mə.nas/	—	menaçons /mə.na.sɔ̃/	menacez /mə.na.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).

Derived terms

• menacer ruine
• menaçant

Further reading

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