visiter

See also: vîsiter

English

Etymology

From Middle English visiter, visitere, equivalent to visit +‎ -er.

Noun

visiter (plural visiters)

1. Archaic form of visitor.
   • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 88:

     Lady Anne had too good taste for that. Still, any one who knew her not, might have thought, from the unusual care and pains bestowed on her appearance, that she herself meditated a conquest of their visiter.

2. Misspelling of visitor.

References

• “visiter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Viteris, revisit

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French visiter, a learned borrowing from Latin vīsitāre (“to visit”). Replaced the inherited form seen in Old French visder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vi.zi.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

visiter

1. to visit (a place)

   Tu dois visiter Paris un jour.

   You must visit Paris one day

Usage notes

Visiter is only used for places. French uses "rendre visite à" for people, i.e. "Je rends visite à mon père à Paris." = I'm visiting my father in Paris.

Conjugation

Conjugation of visiter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	visiter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	visitant /vi.zi.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		visité /vi.zi.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	visite /vi.zit/	visites /vi.zit/	visite /vi.zit/	visitons /vi.zi.tɔ̃/	visitez /vi.zi.te/	visitent /vi.zit/
	imperfect	visitais /vi.zi.tɛ/	visitais /vi.zi.tɛ/	visitait /vi.zi.tɛ/	visitions /vi.zi.tjɔ̃/	visitiez /vi.zi.tje/	visitaient /vi.zi.tɛ/
	past historic2	visitai /vi.zi.te/	visitas /vi.zi.ta/	visita /vi.zi.ta/	visitâmes /vi.zi.tam/	visitâtes /vi.zi.tat/	visitèrent /vi.zi.tɛʁ/
	future	visiterai /vi.zi.tʁe/	visiteras /vi.zi.tʁa/	visitera /vi.zi.tʁa/	visiterons /vi.zi.tʁɔ̃/	visiterez /vi.zi.tʁe/	visiteront /vi.zi.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	visiterais /vi.zi.tʁɛ/	visiterais /vi.zi.tʁɛ/	visiterait /vi.zi.tʁɛ/	visiterions /vi.zi.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	visiteriez /vi.zi.tə.ʁje/	visiteraient /vi.zi.tʁɛ/
(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	visite /vi.zit/	visites /vi.zit/	visite /vi.zit/	visitions /vi.zi.tjɔ̃/	visitiez /vi.zi.tje/	visitent /vi.zit/
	imperfect2	visitasse /vi.zi.tas/	visitasses /vi.zi.tas/	visitât /vi.zi.ta/	visitassions /vi.zi.ta.sjɔ̃/	visitassiez /vi.zi.ta.sje/	visitassent /vi.zi.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	visite /vi.zit/	—	visitons /vi.zi.tɔ̃/	visitez /vi.zi.te/	—
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

• visite
• visiteur

Descendants

• → Romanian: vizita

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

vīsiter

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of vīsitō

Middle French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin vīsitō (“to visit”). Replaced the inherited form seen in Old French visder.

Verb

visiter

1. to visit (a person or a place)

Conjugation

• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

Conjugation of visiter

infinitive	simple	visiter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle1 or gerund2	simple	visitant
	compound	present participle or gerund of avoir + past participle
past participle		visité
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		ie (i’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ilz, elles
(simple tenses)	present	visite	visites	visite	visitons	visitez	visitent
	imperfect	visitois, visitoys	visitois, visitoys	visitoit, visitoyt	visitions, visityons	visitiez, visityez	visitoient, visitoyent
	past historic	visita	visitas	visita	visitasmes	visitastes	visiterent
	future	visiterai, visiteray	visiteras	visitera	visiterons	visiterez	visiteront
	conditional	visiterois, visiteroys	visiterois, visiteroys	visiteroit, visiteroyt	visiterions, visiteryons	visiteriez, visiteryez	visiteroient, visiteroyent
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que ie (i’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ilz, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	visite	visites	visite	visitons	visitez	visitent
	imperfect	visitasse	visitasses	visitast	visitassions	visitassiez	visitassent
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	visite	—	visitons	visitez	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The present participle was variable in gender and number until the 17th century (Anne Sancier-Château [1995], Une esthétique nouvelle: Honoré d'Urfé, correcteur de l'Astrée, p. 179). The French Academy would eventually declare it not to be declined in 1679.
2 The gerund was held to be invariable by grammarians of the early 17th century, and was usable with preposition en, as in Modern French, although the preposition was not mandatory (Anne Sancier-Château [1995], op. cit., p. 180).

Descendants

• French: visiter
  • → Romanian: vizita
• → Norman: vîsiter
• → Middle Dutch: visiteren
  • Dutch: visiteren
• → Middle English: visiten
  • English: visit