abâtardir

French

Etymology

a- + bâtard (bastard) + -ir, originally "to bastardize, to make to lose racial characteristics"

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Verb

abâtardir

  1. to cause something's qualities or defining characteristics to degenerate; to defile or degrade; to bastardize.
    • 1580, Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book I, CHapter 26 (modernized spelling),
      Ôtez moy la violence et la force; il n'est rien, à mon avis, qui abâtardisse et étourdisse si fort une nature bien née.
      Away with this violence! away with this compulsion! than which, I certainly believe nothing more dulls and degenerates a well-descended nature. (Translation Charles Cotton)
    • 2005, Lloyd Bradley, Bass culture: quand le reggae était roi, translated by Manuel Rabasse, Allia, p. 366,
      Tandis qu'il adaptait l'équipement, ajoutait—et abâtardissait—de nouveaux systèmes périphériques et bricolait les circuits pratiquement de jour en jour.
  2. (takes a reflexive pronoun) To degrade; to degenerate; to become bastardized.
    • 1840, Louis René Villermé, Tableau de l'état physique et moral des ouvriers employés dans les manufactures de coton, de laine et de soie, p. 407
      On vous a dit que c'était dans les filatures que la race s'abâtardissait.
    • 1995, Léon Dion, "Propos désabusés d'un fédéraliste fatigué," in C.E.S. Franks & John Meisel (eds.), Canada's century : governance in a maturing society : essays in honour of John Meisel, McGill-Queen's University Press, p. 95,
      D'où cette conscience tragique chez nos écrivains et l'intelligentsia en général que le français est ici menacé et qu'il s'abâtardit parmi la population.

Usage notes

  • The verb is most frequently used in its participial or pronominal forms, and now rarely in its transitive form.
  • Very commonly used to refer to language or culture.

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-.

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-.

Derived terms

Further reading

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