apprivoiser
French
Etymology
Inherited from Vulgar Latin *apprīvātiāre, from Latin prīvātus (“deprived; freed, released”), perfect passive participle of prīvō (“to bereave, deprive; to free, release”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/
Audio: (file)
Verb
apprivoiser
- (transitive) to tame
- 1875, “Act I”, in Ludovic Halévy, Henri Meilhac (lyrics), Georges Bizet (music), Carmen:
- L’amour est un oiseau rebelle / Que nul ne peut apprivoiser, / […]
- Love is a rebellious bird / That none can tame, / […]
- 1943, Antoine Saint-Exupéry, chapter XXI, in Le petit prince [The Little Prince], New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 78:
- — Je ne puis pas jouer avec toi, dit le renard. Je ne suis pas apprivoisé.
- “I cannot play with you,” the fox said. “I am not tamed.”
- (transitive, figurative) to win over, to charm
- 1969, “Les Champs-Élysées”, Pierre Delanoë (lyrics), Michael Wilshaw (music), performed by Joe Dassin:
- J'avais envie de dire bonjour à n'importe qui / N'importe qui et ce fut toi, je t'ai dit n'importe quoi / Il suffisait de te parler, pour t'apprivoiser
- I was in the mood to say hello to someone, just anyone / and it was you, I told you anything / It was enough to talk to you, to charm you
Conjugation
Conjugation of apprivoiser (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | apprivoiser | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | apprivoisant /a.pʁi.vwa.zɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | apprivoisé /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
apprivoises /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
apprivoisons /a.pʁi.vwa.zɔ̃/ |
apprivoisez /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/ |
apprivoisent /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
| imperfect | apprivoisais /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/ |
apprivoisais /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/ |
apprivoisait /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/ |
apprivoisions /a.pʁi.vwa.zjɔ̃/ |
apprivoisiez /a.pʁi.vwa.zje/ |
apprivoisaient /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | apprivoisai /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/ |
apprivoisas /a.pʁi.vwa.za/ |
apprivoisa /a.pʁi.vwa.za/ |
apprivoisâmes /a.pʁi.vwa.zam/ |
apprivoisâtes /a.pʁi.vwa.zat/ |
apprivoisèrent /a.pʁi.vwa.zɛʁ/ | |
| future | apprivoiserai /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁe/ |
apprivoiseras /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁa/ |
apprivoisera /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁa/ |
apprivoiserons /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɔ̃/ |
apprivoiserez /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁe/ |
apprivoiseront /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | apprivoiserais /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɛ/ |
apprivoiserais /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɛ/ |
apprivoiserait /a.pʁi.vwaz.ʁɛ/ |
apprivoiserions /a.pʁi.vwa.zə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
apprivoiseriez /a.pʁi.vwa.zə.ʁje/ |
apprivoiseraient /a.pʁi.vwaz.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 | apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
apprivoises /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
apprivoisions /a.pʁi.vwa.zjɔ̃/ |
apprivoisiez /a.pʁi.vwa.zje/ |
apprivoisent /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
| imperfect2 | apprivoisasse /a.pʁi.vwa.zas/ |
apprivoisasses /a.pʁi.vwa.zas/ |
apprivoisât /a.pʁi.vwa.za/ |
apprivoisassions /a.pʁi.vwa.za.sjɔ̃/ |
apprivoisassiez /a.pʁi.vwa.za.sje/ |
apprivoisassent /a.pʁi.vwa.zas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | apprivoise /a.pʁi.vwaz/ |
— | apprivoisons /a.pʁi.vwa.zɔ̃/ |
apprivoisez /a.pʁi.vwa.ze/ |
— | |
| 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:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Derived terms
Further reading
- “apprivoiser”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.