déguerpir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French déguerpir, deswerpir (“to leave”), from Old French deguerpir (“to abandon”), from de- + guerpir (“to give up, abandon”), from Frankish *wurpijan (“to throw, cast off”), from Proto-Germanic *werpaną (“to throw”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to turn, twist”). Compare Walloon diwerpi, Occitan degurpir, Middle French gurpir (“to give up, abandon”). Cognate with Old High German werfan (“to throw”), Old English weorpan (“to throw, cast, cast away”). More at warp.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de.ɡɛʁ.piʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

déguerpir

1. (intransitive) to flee, to run off; to scram, skedaddle, scarper
   • 1992, Amélie Nothomb, Hygiène de l'assassin:

     Le journaliste déguerpit, la queue entre les jambes.

     The journalist ran off, his tail between his legs.

2. to bug

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-.

Further reading

• “déguerpir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.