abâtardir

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)

Verb

abâtardir

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), translated by Charles Cotton:
  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.
- 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.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
(pronominal) 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, page 407:
  On vous a dit que c’était dans les filatures que la race s’abâtardissait.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 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.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)

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-.

Conjugation of abâtardir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	abâtardir
present participle or gerund¹	simple	abâtardissant /a.ba.taʁ.di.sɑ̃/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		abâtardi /a.ba.taʁ.di/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	abâtardis /a.ba.taʁ.di/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di/	abâtardis /a.ba.taʁ.di/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di/	abâtardit /a.ba.taʁ.di/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di/	abâtardissons /a.ba.taʁ.di.sɔ̃/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sɔ̃/	abâtardissez /a.ba.taʁ.di.se/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.se/	abâtardissent /a.ba.taʁ.dis/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.dis/
	imperfect	abâtardissais /a.ba.taʁ.di.sɛ/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sɛ/	abâtardissais /a.ba.taʁ.di.sɛ/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sɛ/	abâtardissait /a.ba.taʁ.di.sɛ/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sɛ/	abâtardissions /a.ba.taʁ.di.sjɔ̃/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sjɔ̃/	abâtardissiez /a.ba.taʁ.di.sje/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sje/	abâtardissaient /a.ba.taʁ.di.sɛ/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sɛ/
	past historic²	abâtardis /a.ba.taʁ.di/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di/	abâtardis /a.ba.taʁ.di/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di/	abâtardit /a.ba.taʁ.di/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di/	abâtardîmes /a.ba.taʁ.dim/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.dim/	abâtardîtes /a.ba.taʁ.dit/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.dit/	abâtardirent /a.ba.taʁ.diʁ/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.diʁ/
	future	abâtardirai /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁe/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁe/	abâtardiras /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁa/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁa/	abâtardira /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁa/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁa/	abâtardirons /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁɔ̃/	abâtardirez /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁe/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁe/	abâtardiront /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁɔ̃/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	abâtardirais /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁɛ/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁɛ/	abâtardirais /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁɛ/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁɛ/	abâtardirait /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁɛ/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁɛ/	abâtardirions /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁjɔ̃/	abâtardiriez /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁje/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.ʁje/	abâtardiraient /a.ba.taʁ.di.ʁɛ/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.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	abâtardisse /a.ba.taʁ.dis/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.dis/	abâtardisses /a.ba.taʁ.dis/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.dis/	abâtardisse /a.ba.taʁ.dis/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.dis/	abâtardissions /a.ba.taʁ.di.sjɔ̃/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sjɔ̃/	abâtardissiez /a.ba.taʁ.di.sje/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sje/	abâtardissent /a.ba.taʁ.dis/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.dis/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	abâtardisse /a.ba.taʁ.dis/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.dis/	abâtardisses /a.ba.taʁ.dis/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.dis/	abâtardît /a.ba.taʁ.di/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di/	abâtardissions /a.ba.taʁ.di.sjɔ̃/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sjɔ̃/	abâtardissiez /a.ba.taʁ.di.sje/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sje/	abâtardissent /a.ba.taʁ.dis/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.dis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	abâtardis /a.ba.taʁ.di/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di/	—	abâtardissons /a.ba.taʁ.di.sɔ̃/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.sɔ̃/	abâtardissez /a.ba.taʁ.di.se/ or /a.bɑ.taʁ.di.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).