pleurer

Inherited from Middle French pleurer, from Old French plourer, plorer, from Latin plōrāre (“cry out”). Cognate with Catalan plorar, Spanish llorar.

• IPA^(key): /plœ.ʁe/

• Audio:

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pleurer

1. (intransitive) to cry, to weep; to shed tears
   • 1926, Pierre Louÿs, Trois filles de leur mère, Paris: René Bonnel:

     Elle pleurait simplement, sans aucun sanglot, mais n’en paraissait que plus pitoyable.

     She wept simply, without sobs, but only seemed the more pitiable for it.

   • 1940, Out-el-Kouloub, “Zaheira”, in Trois contes de l'Amour et de la Mort, éditions Corrêa:

     Elle mit un instant à recouvrer son souffle. Non ! Elle ne pleurerait pas devant lui.

     She took a moment to catch her breath. No! She would not cry in front of him.

2. (transitive) to mourn, to cry for
   • 2019 October 14, Allan Kaval, “Réduits à solliciter le renfort de Damas, les Kurdes pleurent la fin d’un monde”, in Le Monde:

     Pleurait-elle ces nouveaux morts, venus rejoindre, dans des tombes aux couronnes fleuries, les 10 000 jeunes hommes et femmes tombés au combat ? Ou pleurait-elle la fin d’un monde ?

     Was she weeping for the newly dead, who had just arrived to join—in graves crowned with flowers—the 10,000 young men and women fallen in combat? Or was she weeping for the end of a world?

• Antillean Creole: pléré
• Guianese Creole: pléré
• Mauritian Creole: plore
• → Esperanto: plori

• larmoyer

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