coiffer

French

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-West Germanic *kuffjuder.

Late Latin cofia

Middle French coiffe

French coiffe

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu.

Proto-Italic *-ājō

Proto-Italic *-āō

Latin -ō

Old French -ier

Middle French -er

French -er

French coiffer

From coiffe +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwa.fe/

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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Verb

coiffer

1. (transitive) to cover the head
2. (transitive) to give a haircut; to do the hair of
3. (reflexive) to do one's own hair

Conjugation

Conjugation of coiffer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	coiffer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	coiffant /kwa.fɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		coiffé /kwa.fe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	coiffe /kwaf/	coiffes /kwaf/	coiffe /kwaf/	coiffons /kwa.fɔ̃/	coiffez /kwa.fe/	coiffent /kwaf/
	imperfect	coiffais /kwa.fɛ/	coiffais /kwa.fɛ/	coiffait /kwa.fɛ/	coiffions /kwa.fjɔ̃/	coiffiez /kwa.fje/	coiffaient /kwa.fɛ/
	past historic2	coiffai /kwa.fe/	coiffas /kwa.fa/	coiffa /kwa.fa/	coiffâmes /kwa.fam/	coiffâtes /kwa.fat/	coiffèrent /kwa.fɛʁ/
	future	coifferai /kwa.fʁe/	coifferas /kwa.fʁa/	coiffera /kwa.fʁa/	coifferons /kwa.fʁɔ̃/	coifferez /kwa.fʁe/	coifferont /kwa.fʁɔ̃/
	conditional	coifferais /kwa.fʁɛ/	coifferais /kwa.fʁɛ/	coifferait /kwa.fʁɛ/	coifferions /kwa.fə.ʁjɔ̃/	coifferiez /kwa.fə.ʁje/	coifferaient /kwa.fʁɛ/
(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	coiffe /kwaf/	coiffes /kwaf/	coiffe /kwaf/	coiffions /kwa.fjɔ̃/	coiffiez /kwa.fje/	coiffent /kwaf/
	imperfect2	coiffasse /kwa.fas/	coiffasses /kwa.fas/	coiffât /kwa.fa/	coiffassions /kwa.fa.sjɔ̃/	coiffassiez /kwa.fa.sje/	coiffassent /kwa.fas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	coiffe /kwaf/	—	coiffons /kwa.fɔ̃/	coiffez /kwa.fe/	—
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

• coiffer au poteau, coiffer sur le poteau
• coiffeur, coiffeuse
• coiffure

Descendants

• Mauritian Creole: kwafe

Further reading

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