écarteler

French

Etymology

From Old French esquarterer, with dissimilation. Related to quartier.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /e.kaʁ.tə.le/
  • (file)

Verb

écarteler

  1. (transitive) to draw and quarter (to execute by pulling the victim's limbs in different directions; to pull a body apart by the four limbs)
    Near-synonym: démembrer
  2. (heraldry) to divide a shield into four parts

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated mostly like the regular -er verbs (parler and chanter and so on), but the -e- /ə/ of the second-to-last syllable becomes -è- /ɛ/ when the next vowel is a silent or schwa -e-. For example, in the third-person singular present indicative, we have il écartèle rather than *il écartele. Other verbs conjugated this way include lever and mener. Related but distinct conjugations include those of appeler and préférer.

Derived terms

See also

Further reading

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.