blanchir

French

Etymology

From Old French blanchir, equivalent to blanc +‎ -ir, from Late Latin or Vulgar Latin *blancus, from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“bright, shining, blinding, white”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blɑ̃.ʃiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

blanchir

1. to launder, wash

   Blanchir du linge.

   To wash linen.

2. to make white; to whiten

   La neige a blanchi les toits.

   The snow whitens the roofs.

3. to grow or become white

   Les cheveux blanchissent avec l’âge.

   Hair whitens with age.

4. to blanch or bleach

   Elle a blanchi quand elle a entendu les nouvelles.

   She blanched when she heard the news.

5. (money) to launder
6. whitewashing (a deliberate attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts about a person or organization in order to protect their reputation)

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 blanchir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	blanchir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	blanchissant /blɑ̃.ʃi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		blanchi /blɑ̃.ʃi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	blanchis /blɑ̃.ʃi/	blanchis /blɑ̃.ʃi/	blanchit /blɑ̃.ʃi/	blanchissons /blɑ̃.ʃi.sɔ̃/	blanchissez /blɑ̃.ʃi.se/	blanchissent /blɑ̃.ʃis/
	imperfect	blanchissais /blɑ̃.ʃi.sɛ/	blanchissais /blɑ̃.ʃi.sɛ/	blanchissait /blɑ̃.ʃi.sɛ/	blanchissions /blɑ̃.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	blanchissiez /blɑ̃.ʃi.sje/	blanchissaient /blɑ̃.ʃi.sɛ/
	past historic2	blanchis /blɑ̃.ʃi/	blanchis /blɑ̃.ʃi/	blanchit /blɑ̃.ʃi/	blanchîmes /blɑ̃.ʃim/	blanchîtes /blɑ̃.ʃit/	blanchirent /blɑ̃.ʃiʁ/
	future	blanchirai /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁe/	blanchiras /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁa/	blanchira /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁa/	blanchirons /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁɔ̃/	blanchirez /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁe/	blanchiront /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	blanchirais /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁɛ/	blanchirais /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁɛ/	blanchirait /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁɛ/	blanchirions /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁjɔ̃/	blanchiriez /blɑ̃.ʃi.ʁje/	blanchiraient /blɑ̃.ʃi.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	blanchisse /blɑ̃.ʃis/	blanchisses /blɑ̃.ʃis/	blanchisse /blɑ̃.ʃis/	blanchissions /blɑ̃.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	blanchissiez /blɑ̃.ʃi.sje/	blanchissent /blɑ̃.ʃis/
	imperfect2	blanchisse /blɑ̃.ʃis/	blanchisses /blɑ̃.ʃis/	blanchît /blɑ̃.ʃi/	blanchissions /blɑ̃.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	blanchissiez /blɑ̃.ʃi.sje/	blanchissent /blɑ̃.ʃis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	blanchis /blɑ̃.ʃi/	—	blanchissons /blɑ̃.ʃi.sɔ̃/	blanchissez /blɑ̃.ʃi.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

• blanchiment
• blanchissement

Descendants

• → German: blanchieren

Further reading

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

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Old French

Etymology

From Late Latin or Vulgar Latin *blancus, from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“bright, shining, blinding, white”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”).

Verb

blanchir

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Descendants

• English: blanch
• French: blanchir