posséder

From an alteration of an older Middle French possider, from Latin possidēre. Compare also the Old French forms porseoir, porseir, porsoier.

• IPA^(key): /pɔ.se.de/

• Audio:

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posséder

1. to own; to possess
   • 1901, Anatole France, chapter XVII, in Monsieur Bergeret à Paris:

     Aucun riche ne possède plus que moi ce vieux chêne de Fontainebleau ou ce tableau du Louvre. Et ils sont plus à moi qu’au riche si je sais mieux en jouir.

     No rich man owns an old oak in the forest of Fontainebleau or a painting in the Louvre any more than I do. And they belong more to me than to the rich man if I know how to enjoy them better.

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written posséder-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written possèder-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

• posséder sexuellement

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