garnir

French

Etymology

From Middle French garnir, from Old French guarnir (“to protect (oneself), armour up”), from Frankish *warnjan (“to ward, take care of something”), from Proto-Germanic *warnijanan (“to worry, be careful, take heed, refuse, withhold”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to close, cover, protect, save, defend”). Cognate with Middle Dutch waernen (“to provide, equip”), Middle Low German warnen, wernen (“to secure, arm”), Old English wiernan (“to withhold, be sparing of, deny, refuse, reject, decline, forbid, prevent”), Old Norse varna (“to prevent, refuse, protect”). Related to warn.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡaʁ.niʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

garnir

1. to furnish (a building, a room)
2. (military, dated) to arm
3. to decorate, to pretty, to garnish

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 garnir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		garnir			avoir garni
gerund		en garnissant			en ayant garni
present participle		garnissant
past participle		garni
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	garnis	garnis	garnit	garnissons	garnissez	garnissent
	imperfect	garnissais	garnissais	garnissait	garnissions	garnissiez	garnissaient
	past historic1	garnis	garnis	garnit	garnîmes	garnîtes	garnirent
	future	garnirai	garniras	garnira	garnirons	garnirez	garniront
	conditional	garnirais	garnirais	garnirait	garnirions	garniriez	garniraient
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior1	Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	garnisse	garnisses	garnisse	garnissions	garnissiez	garnissent
	imperfect1	garnisse	garnisses	garnît	garnissions	garnissiez	garnissent
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect1	Use the imperfect subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
		—	garnis	—	garnissons	garnissez	—
1literary tenses

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Middle French

Verb

garnir

1. to equip; to furnish with
2. to decorate
   • circa 1369, Jean Froissart, Chroniques:

     Guy de Trimouille fist tres richemment garnir la nef ou son corps devoit passer

     Guy de Trimouille richly decorated the boat where his body should lay

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Old French

Etymology

From Frankish *warnōn.

Verb

garnir

1. to protect
2. (by extension) to arm (provide with arms)
3. (by extension) to armor
4. (by extension) to clothe

Derived terms

• garnement

Descendants

• English: to garnish
• French: garnir