meurtrir

French

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French meurtrir (“to bruise, leave a mark on the skin, tear, hurt, to murder”) from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French meurtrir, murtrir (“to kill, slaughter, murder”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Frankish *murþrijan (“to murder”) from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *murþrijaną (“to kill, murder”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *mrtro- (“murder, death”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *mer-, *mor-, *mr- (“to die”). Akin to Old High German murd(r)jan (“to kill, murder”) (German mördern (“to murder”)), Old English myrþrian (“to murder”), Old English morþor (“death, murder”). More at murder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mœʁ.tʁiʁ/

Verb

meurtrir

1. (transitive, obsolete) to murder
2. (transitive) to injure, hurt; to bruise, especially in reference to fruit; to leave a contusion
3. (transitive) to hurt or injure someone's feelings

Usage notes

• The verb tuer is more commonly used for "to murder" but may be ambiguous as it also refers to non-deliberate killing

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 meurtrir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	meurtrir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	meurtrissant /mœʁ.tʁi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		meurtri /mœʁ.tʁi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	meurtris /mœʁ.tʁi/	meurtris /mœʁ.tʁi/	meurtrit /mœʁ.tʁi/	meurtrissons /mœʁ.tʁi.sɔ̃/	meurtrissez /mœʁ.tʁi.se/	meurtrissent /mœʁ.tʁis/
	imperfect	meurtrissais /mœʁ.tʁi.sɛ/	meurtrissais /mœʁ.tʁi.sɛ/	meurtrissait /mœʁ.tʁi.sɛ/	meurtrissions /mœʁ.tʁi.sjɔ̃/	meurtrissiez /mœʁ.tʁi.sje/	meurtrissaient /mœʁ.tʁi.sɛ/
	past historic2	meurtris /mœʁ.tʁi/	meurtris /mœʁ.tʁi/	meurtrit /mœʁ.tʁi/	meurtrîmes /mœʁ.tʁim/	meurtrîtes /mœʁ.tʁit/	meurtrirent /mœʁ.tʁiʁ/
	future	meurtrirai /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁe/	meurtriras /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁa/	meurtrira /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁa/	meurtrirons /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɔ̃/	meurtrirez /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁe/	meurtriront /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	meurtrirais /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɛ/	meurtrirais /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɛ/	meurtrirait /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁɛ/	meurtririons /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁjɔ̃/	meurtririez /mœʁ.tʁi.ʁje/	meurtriraient /mœʁ.tʁi.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	meurtrisse /mœʁ.tʁis/	meurtrisses /mœʁ.tʁis/	meurtrisse /mœʁ.tʁis/	meurtrissions /mœʁ.tʁi.sjɔ̃/	meurtrissiez /mœʁ.tʁi.sje/	meurtrissent /mœʁ.tʁis/
	imperfect2	meurtrisse /mœʁ.tʁis/	meurtrisses /mœʁ.tʁis/	meurtrît /mœʁ.tʁi/	meurtrissions /mœʁ.tʁi.sjɔ̃/	meurtrissiez /mœʁ.tʁi.sje/	meurtrissent /mœʁ.tʁis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	meurtris /mœʁ.tʁi/	—	meurtrissons /mœʁ.tʁi.sɔ̃/	meurtrissez /mœʁ.tʁi.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).

Related terms

• meurtrissable
• meurtrissant
• meurtrissement
• meurtrissure
• meurtre
• meurtrier

Further reading

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

---

Middle French

Verb

meurtrir

1. to murder