choir
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- quire (archaic)
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English quer, quere, from Old French quer, from Latin chorus, from Ancient Greek χορός (khorós, “company of dancers or singers”). Modern spelling influenced by chorus and Modern French chœur, making it the only English word where the digraph oi is pronounced /waɪ/. Doublet of chorus.
PronunciationEdit
- (UK) IPA(key): /kwaɪə(ɹ)/
Audio (UK) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /kwaɪɚ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
- Homophone: quire
NounEdit
choir (plural choirs)
- A group of people who sing together; a company of people who are trained to sing together.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
- The church choir practices Thursday nights.
- (architecture) The part of a church where the choir assembles for song.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.
- (Christian angelology) One of the nine ranks or orders of angels.
- Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones are three of the choirs of angels.
- Set of strings (one per note) for a harpsichord.
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
singing group
|
part of a church for choir assembly
|
a rank or order of angels
VerbEdit
choir (third-person singular simple present choirs or quires, present participle choiring or quiring, simple past and past participle choired or quired)
- (intransitive) To sing in concert.
- 1859, The Presbyterian Magazine, volume 9, page 423:
- The great aim of this book is to secure congregational singing, which the churches must come to, at last, after a long interval of choiring.
AnagramsEdit
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
Inherited from Middle French cheoir, from Old French cheoir, from older chedeir, from Late Latin cadēre, from Latin cadĕre, from Proto-Italic *kadō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱh₂d- (“to fall”).
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
choir (defective) (past participle chu)
- (literary) to fall
- Synonym: tomber
- 1640, Pierre Corneille, “Act 5, Scene 3”, in Horace:
- L'abandonnerez-vous à l'infâme couteau
Qui fait choir les méchants sous la main d'un bourreau ?- Would you abandon him to the infamous blade
Which makes the wicked fall under the headman's hand?
- Would you abandon him to the infamous blade
- 1976, Serge Gainsbourg (lyrics and music), “Chez Max coiffeur pour hommes”, in L’homme à tête de chou:
- Puis sous le sirocco du séchoir
Dans mes cheveux
La petite garce laisse choir :
"Je veux"- Then under the sirocco of the dryer
Into my hair
The little lass let drop [the words]
"I want [you]"
- Then under the sirocco of the dryer
ConjugationEdit
This is a defective verb, only conjugated in certain tenses.
Conjugation of choir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | choir | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | — | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | chu /ʃy/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | chois /ʃwa/ |
chois /ʃwa/ |
choit /ʃwa/ |
choyons /ʃwa.jɔ̃/ |
choyez /ʃwa.je/ |
choient /ʃwa/ |
| imperfect | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| past historic2 | chus /ʃy/ |
chus /ʃy/ |
chut /ʃy/ |
chûmes /ʃym/ |
chûtes /ʃyt/ |
churent /ʃyʁ/ | |
| future | choirai or cherrai /ʃwa.ʁe/ or /ʃɛ.ʁe/ or /ʃe.ʁe/ |
choiras or cherras /ʃwa.ʁa/ or /ʃɛ.ʁa/ or /ʃe.ʁa/ |
choira or cherra /ʃwa.ʁa/ or /ʃɛ.ʁa/ or /ʃe.ʁa/ |
choirons or cherrons /ʃwa.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʃɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʃe.ʁɔ̃/ |
choirez or cherrez /ʃwa.ʁe/ or /ʃɛ.ʁe/ or /ʃe.ʁe/ |
choiront or cherront /ʃwa.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʃɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʃe.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | choirais /ʃwaʁɛ/ |
choirais /ʃwaʁɛ/ |
choirait /ʃwaʁɛ/ |
choirions /ʃwaʁjɔ̃/ |
choiriez /ʃwaʁje/ |
choiraient /ʃwaʁɛ/ | |
| (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 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| imperfect2 | — | — | chût /ʃy/ |
— | — | — | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 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 [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Derived termsEdit
Further readingEdit
- “choir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
IrishEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
choir m
- Lenited form of coir.