ceindre

French

Etymology

From Old French ceindre, from Latin cingere, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kenk-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛ̃dʁ/

• Audio (France):

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• Audio (Canada):

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Verb

ceindre

1. (transitive) to gird, put on (clothes, which fit around a part of the body)
   • 1640, Pierre Corneille, Horace, act 2, scene 5:

     Que je souffre à mes yeux qu’on ceigne une autre tête / Des lauriers immortels que la gloire m’apprête

     How could I suffer that, before my eyes, another head is girdled / With the immortal laurels for which glory has readied me

2. (transitive) to wrap round
3. (figuratively) to don (an item of ceremonious clothing)

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like peindre. It uses the same endings as rendre or vendre, but its -nd- becomes -gn- before a vowel, and its past participle ends in 't' instead of a vowel.

Conjugation of ceindre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	ceindre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	ceignant /sɛ.ɲɑ̃/ or /se.ɲɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		ceint /sɛ̃/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	ceins /sɛ̃/	ceins /sɛ̃/	ceint /sɛ̃/	ceignons /sɛ.ɲɔ̃/ or /se.ɲɔ̃/	ceignez /sɛ.ɲe/ or /se.ɲe/	ceignent /sɛɲ/
	imperfect	ceignais /sɛ.ɲɛ/ or /se.ɲɛ/	ceignais /sɛ.ɲɛ/ or /se.ɲɛ/	ceignait /sɛ.ɲɛ/ or /se.ɲɛ/	ceignions /sɛ.ɲjɔ̃/ or /se.ɲjɔ̃/	ceigniez /sɛ.ɲje/ or /se.ɲje/	ceignaient /sɛ.ɲɛ/ or /se.ɲɛ/
	past historic2	ceignis /sɛ.ɲi/ or /se.ɲi/	ceignis /sɛ.ɲi/ or /se.ɲi/	ceignit /sɛ.ɲi/ or /se.ɲi/	ceignîmes /sɛ.ɲim/ or /se.ɲim/	ceignîtes /sɛ.ɲit/ or /se.ɲit/	ceignirent /sɛ.ɲiʁ/ or /se.ɲiʁ/
	future	ceindrai /sɛ̃.dʁe/	ceindras /sɛ̃.dʁa/	ceindra /sɛ̃.dʁa/	ceindrons /sɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/	ceindrez /sɛ̃.dʁe/	ceindront /sɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/
	conditional	ceindrais /sɛ̃.dʁɛ/	ceindrais /sɛ̃.dʁɛ/	ceindrait /sɛ̃.dʁɛ/	ceindrions /sɛ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/	ceindriez /sɛ̃.dʁi.je/	ceindraient /sɛ̃.dʁɛ/
(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	ceigne /sɛɲ/	ceignes /sɛɲ/	ceigne /sɛɲ/	ceignions /sɛ.ɲjɔ̃/ or /se.ɲjɔ̃/	ceigniez /sɛ.ɲje/ or /se.ɲje/	ceignent /sɛɲ/
	imperfect2	ceignisse /sɛ.ɲis/ or /se.ɲis/	ceignisses /sɛ.ɲis/ or /se.ɲis/	ceignît /sɛ.ɲi/ or /se.ɲi/	ceignissions /sɛ.ɲi.sjɔ̃/ or /se.ɲi.sjɔ̃/	ceignissiez /sɛ.ɲi.sje/ or /se.ɲi.sje/	ceignissent /sɛ.ɲis/ or /se.ɲis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	ceins /sɛ̃/	—	ceignons /sɛ.ɲɔ̃/ or /se.ɲɔ̃/	ceignez /sɛ.ɲe/ or /se.ɲe/	—
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

• ceindre l’écharpe
• ceindre la tiare

Related terms

• ceinture
• enceindre

Further reading

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

Old French

Etymology

From Latin cingere, present active infinitive of cingō.

Verb

ceindre

1. (transitive) to put on (clothes, which fit around a part of the body; a sword)
2. (transitive) to wrap round
3. (figuratively) to don (an item of ceremonious clothing)

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb ends in a palatal stem, so there is an extra i before the e of some endings. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of ceindre (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		ceindre			avoir ceint
gerund		en ceignant			gerund of avoir + past participle
present participle		ceignant
past participle		ceint
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	ceing	ceinz	ceint	ceignons	ceigniez	ceignent
	imperfect	ceignoie, ceigneie	ceignoies, ceigneies	ceignoit, ceigneit	ceigniiens, ceigniens	ceigniiez, ceigniez	ceignoient, ceigneient
	preterite	ceins	ceinsis	ceinst	ceinsimes	ceinsistes	ceinstrent
	future	ceindrai	ceindras	ceindra	ceindrons	ceindroiz, ceindreiz, ceindrez	ceindront
	conditional	ceindroie, ceindreie	ceindroies, ceindreies	ceindroit, ceindreit	ceindriiens, ceindriens	ceindriiez, ceindriez	ceindroient, ceindreient
compound tenses	present perfect	present tense of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect tense of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	preterite tense of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future tense of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional tense of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	ceigne	ceignes	ceigne	ceigniens, ceignons	ceigniez	ceignent
	imperfect	ceinsisse	ceinsisses	ceinsist	ceinsissons, ceinsissiens	ceinsissoiz, ceinsissez, ceinsissiez	ceinsissent
compound tenses	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	ceing	—	ceignons	ceigniez	—

Related terms

• ceinture
• enceindre

Descendants

• French: ceindre

References

• “Appendix E: Irregular Verbs” in E. Einhorn (1974), Old French: A Concise Handbook, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 150
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (ceindre, supplement)