chicaner

English

Etymology

Compare French chicaneur.

Noun

chicaner (plural chicaners)

1. One who uses chicanery.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Locke to this entry?)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “chicaner”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• chancier

---

French

Etymology

From Middle French chicaner, from Middle Low German schicken, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skikkijaną, the selfsame origin of modern French chic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃi.ka.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

chicaner

1. (transitive) to get (someone) into an argument
2. (reflexive, reciprocal) to quibble, squabble (to complain or argue in a trivial or petty manner)

   C’est inutile de se chicaner.

   It's pointless to squabble.

   Mais pourquoi est-ce que vous vous chicanez ?

   Just why are you bickering?

Conjugation

Conjugation of chicaner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	chicaner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	chicanant /ʃi.ka.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		chicané /ʃi.ka.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	chicane /ʃi.kan/	chicanes /ʃi.kan/	chicane /ʃi.kan/	chicanons /ʃi.ka.nɔ̃/	chicanez /ʃi.ka.ne/	chicanent /ʃi.kan/
	imperfect	chicanais /ʃi.ka.nɛ/	chicanais /ʃi.ka.nɛ/	chicanait /ʃi.ka.nɛ/	chicanions /ʃi.ka.njɔ̃/	chicaniez /ʃi.ka.nje/	chicanaient /ʃi.ka.nɛ/
	past historic2	chicanai /ʃi.ka.ne/	chicanas /ʃi.ka.na/	chicana /ʃi.ka.na/	chicanâmes /ʃi.ka.nam/	chicanâtes /ʃi.ka.nat/	chicanèrent /ʃi.ka.nɛʁ/
	future	chicanerai /ʃi.kan.ʁe/	chicaneras /ʃi.kan.ʁa/	chicanera /ʃi.kan.ʁa/	chicanerons /ʃi.kan.ʁɔ̃/	chicanerez /ʃi.kan.ʁe/	chicaneront /ʃi.kan.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	chicanerais /ʃi.kan.ʁɛ/	chicanerais /ʃi.kan.ʁɛ/	chicanerait /ʃi.kan.ʁɛ/	chicanerions /ʃi.ka.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	chicaneriez /ʃi.ka.nə.ʁje/	chicaneraient /ʃi.kan.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	chicane /ʃi.kan/	chicanes /ʃi.kan/	chicane /ʃi.kan/	chicanions /ʃi.ka.njɔ̃/	chicaniez /ʃi.ka.nje/	chicanent /ʃi.kan/
	imperfect2	chicanasse /ʃi.ka.nas/	chicanasses /ʃi.ka.nas/	chicanât /ʃi.ka.na/	chicanassions /ʃi.ka.na.sjɔ̃/	chicanassiez /ʃi.ka.na.sje/	chicanassent /ʃi.ka.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	chicane /ʃi.kan/	—	chicanons /ʃi.ka.nɔ̃/	chicanez /ʃi.ka.ne/	—
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

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