gercer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French garser (“to skin, flay”), from Old French garser, jarser (“to gash, wound”), possibly from Late Latin caraxāre, charaxāre, from Ancient Greek χαράσσειν (kharássein, “to cut, incise”). Alternatively from Latin *carptiāre, from carpĕre (“to pull, pluck”).

Cognate with Galician sarxar and Spanish sajar, both from Old French.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʒɛʁ.se/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

gercer

1. (transitive, intransitive) to chap, become chapped

Conjugation

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which 'c' is softened to a 'ç' before the vowels 'a' and 'o'.

Conjugation of gercer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	gercer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	gerçant /ʒɛʁ.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		gercé /ʒɛʁ.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	gerce /ʒɛʁs/	gerces /ʒɛʁs/	gerce /ʒɛʁs/	gerçons /ʒɛʁ.sɔ̃/	gercez /ʒɛʁ.se/	gercent /ʒɛʁs/
	imperfect	gerçais /ʒɛʁ.sɛ/	gerçais /ʒɛʁ.sɛ/	gerçait /ʒɛʁ.sɛ/	gercions /ʒɛʁ.sjɔ̃/	gerciez /ʒɛʁ.sje/	gerçaient /ʒɛʁ.sɛ/
	past historic2	gerçai /ʒɛʁ.se/	gerças /ʒɛʁ.sa/	gerça /ʒɛʁ.sa/	gerçâmes /ʒɛʁ.sam/	gerçâtes /ʒɛʁ.sat/	gercèrent /ʒɛʁ.sɛʁ/
	future	gercerai /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁe/	gerceras /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁa/	gercera /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁa/	gercerons /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁɔ̃/	gercerez /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁe/	gerceront /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	gercerais /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	gercerais /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	gercerait /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	gercerions /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	gerceriez /ʒɛʁ.sə.ʁje/	gerceraient /ʒɛʁ.sə.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	gerce /ʒɛʁs/	gerces /ʒɛʁs/	gerce /ʒɛʁs/	gercions /ʒɛʁ.sjɔ̃/	gerciez /ʒɛʁ.sje/	gercent /ʒɛʁs/
	imperfect2	gerçasse /ʒɛʁ.sas/	gerçasses /ʒɛʁ.sas/	gerçât /ʒɛʁ.sa/	gerçassions /ʒɛʁ.sa.sjɔ̃/	gerçassiez /ʒɛʁ.sa.sje/	gerçassent /ʒɛʁ.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	gerce /ʒɛʁs/	—	gerçons /ʒɛʁ.sɔ̃/	gercez /ʒɛʁ.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

• gerçure

Further reading

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