houspiller

French

Alternative forms

• gouspiller (Norman)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French houssepillier (“to mistreat by shaking or growling”) and Norman gouspiller (“to shake, thrash, ill-treat”), both from a root *housp-, *gousp- (“to scorn, scold, reproach”), from or akin to Old English hosp (“reproach, insult”), Old English ġehyspan (“to deride, scorn, mock, reproach”) (—Diez), or from Proto-West Germanic *husp, *husk, from Proto-Indo-European *kūd- (“to mock”).

Related to Old English husċ (“mockery, scorn, insult, derision”), Old High German hosc (“invective, censure, mockery, travesty”), Norwegian dialectal huta (“to shout at, treat contemptuously”). Related to English forhush.

Pronunciation

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /us.pi.je/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

houspiller

1. to chide or scold someone harshly, usually accompanied by pulling and shaking, berate
2. to criticise
3. to rebuke, reprehend
4. to mistreat, torment, mob; to cause worry or distress

Conjugation

Conjugation of houspiller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	houspiller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	houspillant /us.pi.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		houspillé /us.pi.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	houspille /us.pij/	houspilles /us.pij/	houspille /us.pij/	houspillons /us.pi.jɔ̃/	houspillez /us.pi.je/	houspillent /us.pij/
	imperfect	houspillais /us.pi.jɛ/	houspillais /us.pi.jɛ/	houspillait /us.pi.jɛ/	houspillions /us.pij.jɔ̃/	houspilliez /us.pij.je/	houspillaient /us.pi.jɛ/
	past historic2	houspillai /us.pi.je/	houspillas /us.pi.ja/	houspilla /us.pi.ja/	houspillâmes /us.pi.jam/	houspillâtes /us.pi.jat/	houspillèrent /us.pi.jɛʁ/
	future	houspillerai /us.pij.ʁe/	houspilleras /us.pij.ʁa/	houspillera /us.pij.ʁa/	houspillerons /us.pij.ʁɔ̃/	houspillerez /us.pij.ʁe/	houspilleront /us.pij.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	houspillerais /us.pij.ʁɛ/	houspillerais /us.pij.ʁɛ/	houspillerait /us.pij.ʁɛ/	houspillerions /us.pi.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	houspilleriez /us.pi.jə.ʁje/	houspilleraient /us.pij.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	houspille /us.pij/	houspilles /us.pij/	houspille /us.pij/	houspillions /us.pij.jɔ̃/	houspilliez /us.pij.je/	houspillent /us.pij/
	imperfect2	houspillasse /us.pi.jas/	houspillasses /us.pi.jas/	houspillât /us.pi.ja/	houspillassions /us.pi.ja.sjɔ̃/	houspillassiez /us.pi.ja.sje/	houspillassent /us.pi.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	houspille /us.pij/	—	houspillons /us.pi.jɔ̃/	houspillez /us.pi.je/	—
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).

Further reading

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