French

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Etymology

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Inherited from Middle French morfondre. Cognate with English morfound.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /mɔʁ.fɔ̃dʁ/
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

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morfondre

  1. (transitive, dated) to depress, bore
    Son attitude hautaine morfondait les jeunes gens.
    His haughty attitude bored the youngsters.
  2. (transitive, dated) to cool
    Le vent glacial nous morfondait.
    The glacial wind chilled us.
  3. (reflexive) mope around
    Seule dans sa chambre elle se morfondait toute la journée.
    Alone in her room, she moped around all day long.

Conjugation

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Further reading

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Middle French

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Etymology

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mor (snout) +‎ fondre. The first part comes from Franco-Provençal mor, more (snout), from Vulgar Latin *murrum (muzzle, snout), and the second from Latin fundere.

Verb

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morfondre

  1. (unusually in the past participle morfondu) to chill; to cool
  2. to fatigue; to tire
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Descendants

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  • Middle English: morfounden, morefounden

References

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  • Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (morfondre)
  • morfondre on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)