Perhaps from unattested Middle French and Old French *bâcler, *bacler (“to hold in place, prop a door or window open”). From Vulgar Latin *bacculare, from Latin baculum (“rod, staff used for support”), from Proto-Indo-European *bak-. Indirectly attested in Old French desbacler (“to clear a harbour by getting ships unloaded to make room for incoming ships with lading”).
The hypothesis of a derivation from Middle Dutch bakkelen (“to freeze artificially, lock in place”), from bakken (“to stick, stick hard, glue together”) has been discredited by the lack of attestation of bakkelen in Middle Dutch and by it having only the meaning "freeze superficially" in Dutch.
bâcler
| infinitive | simple | bâcler | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | bâclant /ba.klɑ̃/ or /bɑ.klɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | bâclé /ba.kle/ or /bɑ.kle/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | bâcle /bakl/ or /bɑkl/ |
bâcles /bakl/ or /bɑkl/ |
bâcle /bakl/ or /bɑkl/ |
bâclons /ba.klɔ̃/ or /bɑ.klɔ̃/ |
bâclez /ba.kle/ or /bɑ.kle/ |
bâclent /bakl/ or /bɑkl/ |
| imperfect | bâclais /ba.klɛ/ or /bɑ.klɛ/ |
bâclais /ba.klɛ/ or /bɑ.klɛ/ |
bâclait /ba.klɛ/ or /bɑ.klɛ/ |
bâclions /ba.kli.jɔ̃/ or /bɑ.kli.jɔ̃/ |
bâcliez /ba.kli.je/ or /bɑ.kli.je/ |
bâclaient /ba.klɛ/ or /bɑ.klɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | bâclai /ba.kle/ or /bɑ.kle/ |
bâclas /ba.kla/ or /bɑ.kla/ |
bâcla /ba.kla/ or /bɑ.kla/ |
bâclâmes /ba.klam/ or /bɑ.klam/ |
bâclâtes /ba.klat/ or /bɑ.klat/ |
bâclèrent /ba.klɛʁ/ or /bɑ.klɛʁ/ | |
| future | bâclerai /ba.klə.ʁe/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁe/ |
bâcleras /ba.klə.ʁa/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁa/ |
bâclera /ba.klə.ʁa/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁa/ |
bâclerons /ba.klə.ʁɔ̃/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁɔ̃/ |
bâclerez /ba.klə.ʁe/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁe/ |
bâcleront /ba.klə.ʁɔ̃/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | bâclerais /ba.klə.ʁɛ/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁɛ/ |
bâclerais /ba.klə.ʁɛ/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁɛ/ |
bâclerait /ba.klə.ʁɛ/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁɛ/ |
bâclerions /ba.klə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
bâcleriez /ba.klə.ʁje/ or /bɑ.klə.ʁje/ |
bâcleraient /ba.klə.ʁɛ/ or /bɑ.klə.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 | bâcle /bakl/ or /bɑkl/ |
bâcles /bakl/ or /bɑkl/ |
bâcle /bakl/ or /bɑkl/ |
bâclions /ba.kli.jɔ̃/ or /bɑ.kli.jɔ̃/ |
bâcliez /ba.kli.je/ or /bɑ.kli.je/ |
bâclent /bakl/ or /bɑkl/ |
| imperfect2 | bâclasse /ba.klas/ or /bɑ.klas/ |
bâclasses /ba.klas/ or /bɑ.klas/ |
bâclât /ba.kla/ or /bɑ.kla/ |
bâclassions /ba.kla.sjɔ̃/ or /bɑ.kla.sjɔ̃/ |
bâclassiez /ba.kla.sje/ or /bɑ.kla.sje/ |
bâclassent /ba.klas/ or /bɑ.klas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | bâcle /bakl/ or /bɑkl/ |
— | bâclons /ba.klɔ̃/ or /bɑ.klɔ̃/ |
bâclez /ba.kle/ or /bɑ.kle/ |
— | |
| 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:
(Christopher Kendris , Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||