moisir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Latin mūcēre.

More information

The oi is unusual, as Latin ū generally yields /y/ (hence one might have expected *muisir) but cf. foison, froment, oignon < Latin fūsiōnem, frūmentum, ūniōnem. The final -ir < Latin -ēre on the other hand is regular and results from the palatalization of the preceding -c- to *[d͡zʲ], as in gésir, loisir, plaisir < Latin iacēre, licēre, placēre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mwa.ziʁ/

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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Verb

moisir

1. (ergative) (to cause) to go mouldy, to moulder
2. (informal) to hang around, to gather dust

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 moisir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	moisir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	moisissant /mwa.zi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		moisi /mwa.zi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	moisis /mwa.zi/	moisis /mwa.zi/	moisit /mwa.zi/	moisissons /mwa.zi.sɔ̃/	moisissez /mwa.zi.se/	moisissent /mwa.zis/
	imperfect	moisissais /mwa.zi.sɛ/	moisissais /mwa.zi.sɛ/	moisissait /mwa.zi.sɛ/	moisissions /mwa.zi.sjɔ̃/	moisissiez /mwa.zi.sje/	moisissaient /mwa.zi.sɛ/
	past historic2	moisis /mwa.zi/	moisis /mwa.zi/	moisit /mwa.zi/	moisîmes /mwa.zim/	moisîtes /mwa.zit/	moisirent /mwa.ziʁ/
	future	moisirai /mwa.zi.ʁe/	moisiras /mwa.zi.ʁa/	moisira /mwa.zi.ʁa/	moisirons /mwa.zi.ʁɔ̃/	moisirez /mwa.zi.ʁe/	moisiront /mwa.zi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	moisirais /mwa.zi.ʁɛ/	moisirais /mwa.zi.ʁɛ/	moisirait /mwa.zi.ʁɛ/	moisirions /mwa.zi.ʁjɔ̃/	moisiriez /mwa.zi.ʁje/	moisiraient /mwa.zi.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	moisisse /mwa.zis/	moisisses /mwa.zis/	moisisse /mwa.zis/	moisissions /mwa.zi.sjɔ̃/	moisissiez /mwa.zi.sje/	moisissent /mwa.zis/
	imperfect2	moisisse /mwa.zis/	moisisses /mwa.zis/	moisît /mwa.zi/	moisissions /mwa.zi.sjɔ̃/	moisissiez /mwa.zi.sje/	moisissent /mwa.zis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	moisis /mwa.zi/	—	moisissons /mwa.zi.sɔ̃/	moisissez /mwa.zi.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

• moule

Further reading

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