avachir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French avachir (“to lose one's energy or force”), from Old French avachir (“to sag”), a borrowing from Old Frankish *waikijan (“to soften”), from Proto-Germanic *waikwijaną (“to soften, make pliable, avoid”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyg-, *weyk- (“soft, pliable; to bend, avoid”). Cognate with Old High German weihjan (“to soften”), Old English wǣcan (“to weaken, oppress, trouble”), Old Norse veikja (“to bow, make feeble, weaken”). More at weak.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.va.ʃiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

avachir

1. to make soft; make limp or flabby; cause to sag
2. to render incapable of producing effort

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 avachir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	avachir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	avachissant /a.va.ʃi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		avachi /a.va.ʃi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	avachis /a.va.ʃi/	avachis /a.va.ʃi/	avachit /a.va.ʃi/	avachissons /a.va.ʃi.sɔ̃/	avachissez /a.va.ʃi.se/	avachissent /a.va.ʃis/
	imperfect	avachissais /a.va.ʃi.sɛ/	avachissais /a.va.ʃi.sɛ/	avachissait /a.va.ʃi.sɛ/	avachissions /a.va.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	avachissiez /a.va.ʃi.sje/	avachissaient /a.va.ʃi.sɛ/
	past historic2	avachis /a.va.ʃi/	avachis /a.va.ʃi/	avachit /a.va.ʃi/	avachîmes /a.va.ʃim/	avachîtes /a.va.ʃit/	avachirent /a.va.ʃiʁ/
	future	avachirai /a.va.ʃi.ʁe/	avachiras /a.va.ʃi.ʁa/	avachira /a.va.ʃi.ʁa/	avachirons /a.va.ʃi.ʁɔ̃/	avachirez /a.va.ʃi.ʁe/	avachiront /a.va.ʃi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	avachirais /a.va.ʃi.ʁɛ/	avachirais /a.va.ʃi.ʁɛ/	avachirait /a.va.ʃi.ʁɛ/	avachirions /a.va.ʃi.ʁjɔ̃/	avachiriez /a.va.ʃi.ʁje/	avachiraient /a.va.ʃi.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	avachisse /a.va.ʃis/	avachisses /a.va.ʃis/	avachisse /a.va.ʃis/	avachissions /a.va.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	avachissiez /a.va.ʃi.sje/	avachissent /a.va.ʃis/
	imperfect2	avachisse /a.va.ʃis/	avachisses /a.va.ʃis/	avachît /a.va.ʃi/	avachissions /a.va.ʃi.sjɔ̃/	avachissiez /a.va.ʃi.sje/	avachissent /a.va.ʃis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	avachis /a.va.ʃi/	—	avachissons /a.va.ʃi.sɔ̃/	avachissez /a.va.ʃi.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).

Derived terms

• avachi
• avachissable
• avachissant
• avachissement

Further reading

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