lécher

See also: lecher

French

Etymology

From Middle French lecher, from Old French lechier, from a Vulgar Latin *liccāre (compare Italian leccare), itself probably from Frankish *likkōn. See English lick for more.

Alternatively from an early contraction of *ligicāre, denasalized from *lingicāre, from Classical Latin lingere. This is based on the analogy with *fīccāre (whence French ficher), generally derived from *fīgicāre, from fīgere. However, the last-mentioned etymology (while commonly accepted) is not inevitable and at any rate requires only two theoretical steps, rather than three.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /le.ʃe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

lécher

1. to lick
2. (figurative, informal) to polish, to refine (one's work)

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written lécher-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written lècher-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

Conjugation of lécher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	lécher
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	léchant /le.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		léché /le.ʃe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	lèche /lɛʃ/	lèches /lɛʃ/	lèche /lɛʃ/	léchons /le.ʃɔ̃/	léchez /le.ʃe/	lèchent /lɛʃ/
	imperfect	léchais /le.ʃɛ/	léchais /le.ʃɛ/	léchait /le.ʃɛ/	léchions /le.ʃjɔ̃/	léchiez /le.ʃje/	léchaient /le.ʃɛ/
	past historic2	léchai /le.ʃe/	léchas /le.ʃa/	lécha /le.ʃa/	léchâmes /le.ʃam/	léchâtes /le.ʃat/	léchèrent /le.ʃɛʁ/
	future	lècherai or lécherai /lɛʃ.ʁe/	lècheras or lécheras /lɛʃ.ʁa/	lèchera or léchera /lɛʃ.ʁa/	lècherons or lécherons /lɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/	lècherez or lécherez /lɛʃ.ʁe/	lècheront or lécheront /lɛʃ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	lècherais or lécherais /lɛʃ.ʁɛ/	lècherais or lécherais /lɛʃ.ʁɛ/	lècherait or lécherait /lɛʃ.ʁɛ/	lècherions or lécherions /lɛ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /le.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/	lècheriez or lécheriez /lɛ.ʃə.ʁje/ or /le.ʃə.ʁje/	lècheraient or lécheraient /lɛʃ.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	lèche /lɛʃ/	lèches /lɛʃ/	lèche /lɛʃ/	léchions /le.ʃjɔ̃/	léchiez /le.ʃje/	lèchent /lɛʃ/
	imperfect2	léchasse /le.ʃas/	léchasses /le.ʃas/	léchât /le.ʃa/	léchassions /le.ʃa.sjɔ̃/	léchassiez /le.ʃa.sje/	léchassent /le.ʃas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	lèche /lɛʃ/	—	léchons /le.ʃɔ̃/	léchez /le.ʃe/	—
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

• lèche-cul
• lèche-vitrine
• lécher le cul
• lécher les bottes
• mal léché
• ours mal léché
• se lécher les babines

 

Further reading

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