piger

Danish

Noun

piger c

1. indefinite plural of pige

French

Etymology

Believed to be derived from an adjective meaning "caught", from Late Latin *pedicus, from Latin pedica (“snare, shackle, fetter”), and therefore doublet of piéger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.ʒe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

piger

1. (informal, slang) to understand; to get, to catch on, to twig, to cotton on

   Synonym: entraver

2. (Canada) to choose at random; to draw

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written pige- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

Conjugation of piger (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	piger
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	pigeant /pi.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		pigé /pi.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pige /piʒ/	piges /piʒ/	pige /piʒ/	pigeons /pi.ʒɔ̃/	pigez /pi.ʒe/	pigent /piʒ/
	imperfect	pigeais /pi.ʒɛ/	pigeais /pi.ʒɛ/	pigeait /pi.ʒɛ/	pigions /pi.ʒjɔ̃/	pigiez /pi.ʒje/	pigeaient /pi.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	pigeai /pi.ʒe/	pigeas /pi.ʒa/	pigea /pi.ʒa/	pigeâmes /pi.ʒam/	pigeâtes /pi.ʒat/	pigèrent /pi.ʒɛʁ/
	future	pigerai /piʒ.ʁe/	pigeras /piʒ.ʁa/	pigera /piʒ.ʁa/	pigerons /piʒ.ʁɔ̃/	pigerez /piʒ.ʁe/	pigeront /piʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	pigerais /piʒ.ʁɛ/	pigerais /piʒ.ʁɛ/	pigerait /piʒ.ʁɛ/	pigerions /pi.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	pigeriez /pi.ʒə.ʁje/	pigeraient /piʒ.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	pige /piʒ/	piges /piʒ/	pige /piʒ/	pigions /pi.ʒjɔ̃/	pigiez /pi.ʒje/	pigent /piʒ/
	imperfect2	pigeasse /pi.ʒas/	pigeasses /pi.ʒas/	pigeât /pi.ʒa/	pigeassions /pi.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	pigeassiez /pi.ʒa.sje/	pigeassent /pi.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pige /piʒ/	—	pigeons /pi.ʒɔ̃/	pigez /pi.ʒe/	—
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).

Further reading

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

Latin

Etymology

From pigeō (“to feel annoyance at, feel reluctance at”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *peyǵ- (“ill-meaning, evil-minded, treacherous, hostile, bad”). Related to Old English ġefic (“fraud, deceit, deception”), Old English fācen (“deceit, fraud, treachery, sin, evil, crime, blemish, fault”), Middle High German veichen (“dissembling, deceit, fraud”), though De Vaan is skeptical of the links to the Germanic terms.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ɡer/, [ˈpɪɡɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.d͡ʒer/, [ˈpiːd͡ʒer]

Adjective

piger (feminine pigra, neuter pigrum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)

1. backward, slow, dull, lazy, indolent, sluggish, inactive

   Synonyms: dēses, iners, sēgnis, ignāvus, socors, murcidus, languidus

   Antonyms: vīvus, strēnuus, impiger, alacer, ācer

2. unwilling, reluctant, averse

Declension

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	piger	pigra	pigrum		pigrī	pigrae	pigra
genitive	pigrī	pigrae	pigrī		pigrōrum	pigrārum	pigrōrum
dative	pigrō	pigrae	pigrō		pigrīs
accusative	pigrum	pigram	pigrum		pigrōs	pigrās	pigra
ablative	pigrō	pigrā	pigrō		pigrīs
vocative	piger	pigra	pigrum		pigrī	pigrae	pigra

Derived terms

• pigrō
• pigritia

Descendants

• Italian: pigro
  • → Esperanto: pigra
• Spanish: pigre, pigro

References

• “piger”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “piger”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• piger in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• piger in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016