tressaillir

French

Etymology

From Old French tressaillir, from tres- (“across”) + saillir (“jump”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁe.sa.jiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

tressaillir

1. to thrill, shiver, quiver
2. to vibrate
3. to twitch, start, shudder, jump

Conjugation

This verb is part of a small group of verbs in -ir that conjugate in the indicative imperfect and present, the subjunctive present, and the present participle, as if they ended in -er. They are sometimes written with an 'e' in the future and imperfect, like cueillir and other verbs in -llir.

Conjugation of tressaillir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	tressaillir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	tressaillant /tʁe.sa.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		tressailli /tʁe.sa.ji/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tressaille /tʁe.saj/	tressailles /tʁe.saj/	tressaille /tʁe.saj/	tressaillons /tʁe.sa.jɔ̃/	tressaillez /tʁe.sa.je/	tressaillent /tʁe.saj/
	imperfect	tressaillais /tʁe.sa.jɛ/	tressaillais /tʁe.sa.jɛ/	tressaillait /tʁe.sa.jɛ/	tressaillions /tʁe.saj.jɔ̃/	tressailliez /tʁe.saj.je/	tressaillaient /tʁe.sa.jɛ/
	past historic2	tressaillis /tʁe.sa.ji/	tressaillis /tʁe.sa.ji/	tressaillit /tʁe.sa.ji/	tressaillîmes /tʁe.sa.jim/	tressaillîtes /tʁe.sa.jit/	tressaillirent /tʁe.sa.jiʁ/
	future	tressaillirai or tressaillerai /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁe/ or /tʁe.saj.ʁe/	tressailliras or tressailleras /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁa/ or /tʁe.saj.ʁa/	tressaillira or tressaillera /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁa/ or /tʁe.saj.ʁa/	tressaillirons or tressaillerons /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁɔ̃/ or /tʁe.saj.ʁɔ̃/	tressaillirez or tressaillerez /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁe/ or /tʁe.saj.ʁe/	tressailliront or tressailleront /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁɔ̃/ or /tʁe.saj.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	tressaillirais or tressaillerais /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁɛ/ or /tʁe.saj.ʁɛ/	tressaillirais or tressaillerais /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁɛ/ or /tʁe.saj.ʁɛ/	tressaillirait or tressaillerait /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁɛ/ or /tʁe.saj.ʁɛ/	tressaillirions or tressaillerions /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁjɔ̃/ or /tʁe.sa.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	tressailliriez or tressailleriez /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁje/ or /tʁe.sa.jə.ʁje/	tressailliraient or tressailleraient /tʁe.sa.ji.ʁɛ/ or /tʁe.saj.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	tressaille /tʁe.saj/	tressailles /tʁe.saj/	tressaille /tʁe.saj/	tressaillions /tʁe.saj.jɔ̃/	tressailliez /tʁe.saj.je/	tressaillent /tʁe.saj/
	imperfect2	tressaillisse /tʁe.sa.jis/	tressaillisses /tʁe.sa.jis/	tressaillît /tʁe.sa.ji/	tressaillissions /tʁe.sa.ji.sjɔ̃/	tressaillissiez /tʁe.sa.ji.sje/	tressaillissent /tʁe.sa.jis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	tressaille /tʁe.saj/	—	tressaillons /tʁe.sa.jɔ̃/	tressaillez /tʁe.sa.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

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

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Old French

Etymology

tres- +‎ saillir.

Verb

tressaillir

1. to jump over or jump across
2. to jump for joy

Descendants

• Middle French: tressaillir
  • French: tressaillir

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (tressaillir, supplement)
• Etymology and history of “tressaillir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.