sévir

See also: sevir

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin saevīre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /se.viʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

sévir

1. (intransitive) to crack down, clamp down

   Il faut sévir contre cet abus. ― We must crack down on this abuse.

   Les lois ne sauraient trop sévir contre ce genre de crimes. ― The laws cannot be harsh enough on this sort of crime.

2. (intransitive, of war, storm, etc.) to rage
3. (intransitive, of disease, poverty, etc.) to be rife
   • 1931, Ludovic Naudeau, La France se regarde : le Problème de la natalité, Paris: Librairie Hachette:

     Faut-il s’étonner si, en une population aussi entichée de ses habitudes, la mortalité puerpérale et la mortalité infantile sévissent au delà des moyennes connues !

     Should we be surprised that, given a population so besotted with its old habits, puerperal mortality and infantile mortality are rife beyond known averages?

4. (intransitive, of policy, belief, etc.) to hold sway
   • 2021 July 3, “La France reprend sa coopération avec l’armée malienne”, in Le Monde‎^[1]:

     « La France reste pleinement engagée, avec ses alliés européens et américains, aux côtés des pays sahéliens et des missions internationales », pour combattre les groupes djihadistes qui sévissent au Sahel, a conclu, vendredi, le ministère des armées dans son communiqué.

     "France remains fully engaged, along with its European and American allies, at the side of the Sahel countries and international missions" to combat the jihadist groups that hold sway in the Sahel, the Army Minister concluded Friday in her communiqué.

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 sévir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	sévir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	sévissant /se.vi.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		sévi /se.vi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	sévis /se.vi/	sévis /se.vi/	sévit /se.vi/	sévissons /se.vi.sɔ̃/	sévissez /se.vi.se/	sévissent /se.vis/
	imperfect	sévissais /se.vi.sɛ/	sévissais /se.vi.sɛ/	sévissait /se.vi.sɛ/	sévissions /se.vi.sjɔ̃/	sévissiez /se.vi.sje/	sévissaient /se.vi.sɛ/
	past historic2	sévis /se.vi/	sévis /se.vi/	sévit /se.vi/	sévîmes /se.vim/	sévîtes /se.vit/	sévirent /se.viʁ/
	future	sévirai /se.vi.ʁe/	séviras /se.vi.ʁa/	sévira /se.vi.ʁa/	sévirons /se.vi.ʁɔ̃/	sévirez /se.vi.ʁe/	séviront /se.vi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	sévirais /se.vi.ʁɛ/	sévirais /se.vi.ʁɛ/	sévirait /se.vi.ʁɛ/	sévirions /se.vi.ʁjɔ̃/	séviriez /se.vi.ʁje/	séviraient /se.vi.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	sévisse /se.vis/	sévisses /se.vis/	sévisse /se.vis/	sévissions /se.vi.sjɔ̃/	sévissiez /se.vi.sje/	sévissent /se.vis/
	imperfect2	sévisse /se.vis/	sévisses /se.vis/	sévît /se.vi/	sévissions /se.vi.sjɔ̃/	sévissiez /se.vi.sje/	sévissent /se.vis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	sévis /se.vi/	—	sévissons /se.vi.sɔ̃/	sévissez /se.vi.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).

Related terms

• sévices

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• ivres, revis, rives, rivés, servi, vires, virés, viser