fourmiller

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French formiier (with the suffix -iller, from Latin -iculāre), from Latin formīcāre. Cf. also Italian formicolare, Spanish hormiguear.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fuʁ.mi.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -e
• Homophones: fourmillai, fourmillé, fourmillée, fourmillées, fourmillés, fourmillez

Verb

fourmiller

1. to swarm, to be full of
   • 1877, Maurice Rollinat, “Le Champ de chardons”, in Dans les brandes, poèmes et rondels:

     Le champ fourmille de chardons : / Quel paradis pour le vieil âne !

     The field is swarming with thistles: / What a paradise for the old donkey!

2. to tingle

Conjugation

Conjugation of fourmiller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	fourmiller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	fourmillant /fuʁ.mi.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		fourmillé /fuʁ.mi.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	fourmille /fuʁ.mij/	fourmilles /fuʁ.mij/	fourmille /fuʁ.mij/	fourmillons /fuʁ.mi.jɔ̃/	fourmillez /fuʁ.mi.je/	fourmillent /fuʁ.mij/
	imperfect	fourmillais /fuʁ.mi.jɛ/	fourmillais /fuʁ.mi.jɛ/	fourmillait /fuʁ.mi.jɛ/	fourmillions /fuʁ.mij.jɔ̃/	fourmilliez /fuʁ.mij.je/	fourmillaient /fuʁ.mi.jɛ/
	past historic2	fourmillai /fuʁ.mi.je/	fourmillas /fuʁ.mi.ja/	fourmilla /fuʁ.mi.ja/	fourmillâmes /fuʁ.mi.jam/	fourmillâtes /fuʁ.mi.jat/	fourmillèrent /fuʁ.mi.jɛʁ/
	future	fourmillerai /fuʁ.mij.ʁe/	fourmilleras /fuʁ.mij.ʁa/	fourmillera /fuʁ.mij.ʁa/	fourmillerons /fuʁ.mij.ʁɔ̃/	fourmillerez /fuʁ.mij.ʁe/	fourmilleront /fuʁ.mij.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	fourmillerais /fuʁ.mij.ʁɛ/	fourmillerais /fuʁ.mij.ʁɛ/	fourmillerait /fuʁ.mij.ʁɛ/	fourmillerions /fuʁ.mi.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	fourmilleriez /fuʁ.mi.jə.ʁje/	fourmilleraient /fuʁ.mij.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	fourmille /fuʁ.mij/	fourmilles /fuʁ.mij/	fourmille /fuʁ.mij/	fourmillions /fuʁ.mij.jɔ̃/	fourmilliez /fuʁ.mij.je/	fourmillent /fuʁ.mij/
	imperfect2	fourmillasse /fuʁ.mi.jas/	fourmillasses /fuʁ.mi.jas/	fourmillât /fuʁ.mi.ja/	fourmillassions /fuʁ.mi.ja.sjɔ̃/	fourmillassiez /fuʁ.mi.ja.sje/	fourmillassent /fuʁ.mi.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	fourmille /fuʁ.mij/	—	fourmillons /fuʁ.mi.jɔ̃/	fourmillez /fuʁ.mi.je/	—
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

• fourmi
• fourmilière
• fourmillant
• fourmillement

 

Further reading

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