gésir

See also: gesir

French[edit]

The final -ir < Latin -ēre is regular and results from the palatalization of the preceding -c- to *[d͡zʲ], as in loisir, moisir, plaisir.

gésir

(intransitive, archaic or literary) to lie (to be in a horizontal position), especially when dead or wounded
Ci-gît... (formula used on gravestones) ― Here lies...

La victime gisait dans son sang. ― The victim was lying in a pool of their own blood.
(intransitive, archaic or literary) to be located
(intransitive, archaic or literary) to be buried, hidden

This verb is mostly archaic, but survives in the literary language and in the turn of phrase ci-gît.
The circumflex on the ‘i’ in the third-person singular present indicative has been optional since the 1990 French spelling reforms; see gît (old spelling) and git (new spelling).

This is a defective verb, and is only conjugated in the present and imperfect indicative.

Conjugation of gésir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	—
infinitive	simple	gésir
present participle or gerund¹	simple	gisant /ʒi.zɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	—
past participle		—
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	gis /ʒi/	gis /ʒi/	gît /ʒi/	gisons /ʒi.zɔ̃/	gisez /ʒi.ze/	gisent /ʒiz/
	imperfect	gisais /ʒi.zɛ/	gisais /ʒi.zɛ/	gisait /ʒi.zɛ/	gisions /ʒi.zjɔ̃/	gisiez /ʒi.zje/	gisaient /ʒi.zɛ/
	past historic²	—	—	—	—	—	—
	future	—	—	—	—	—	—
	conditional	—	—	—	—	—	—
(compound tenses)	present perfect	—
	pluperfect	—
	past anterior²	—
	future perfect	—
	conditional perfect	—
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	—	—	—	—	—	—
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	—	—	—	—	—	—
(compound tenses)	past	—
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	—
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	—	—	—	—	—
compound		—	—	—	—	—	—
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).