nantir

French

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French nantir (“to seize (the guarantors)”), from nant (“pledge, security”), probably from Old Norse nám (“taking, seizure”), from Proto-Germanic *nēmą (“taking”), from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to give or take one's due”). Cognate with Old High German nām (“robbery”), Old English niman (“to take, seize”). More at nim.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɑ̃.tiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

nantir

1. (transitive) to provide [with direct object ‘someone’ and de ‘with something’]

   Cet homme ne prête point si on ne le nantit auparavant.

   That man will not give anyone a loan without collateral.

2. (reflexive) to obtain, to get [with de ‘something’]

   Je me suis nanti d’un bon manteau contre la pluie.

   I've got myself a good raincoat.

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-.

Conjugation of nantir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	nantir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	nantissant /nɑ̃.ti.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		nanti /nɑ̃.ti/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	nantis /nɑ̃.ti/	nantis /nɑ̃.ti/	nantit /nɑ̃.ti/	nantissons /nɑ̃.ti.sɔ̃/	nantissez /nɑ̃.ti.se/	nantissent /nɑ̃.tis/
	imperfect	nantissais /nɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	nantissais /nɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	nantissait /nɑ̃.ti.sɛ/	nantissions /nɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	nantissiez /nɑ̃.ti.sje/	nantissaient /nɑ̃.ti.sɛ/
	past historic2	nantis /nɑ̃.ti/	nantis /nɑ̃.ti/	nantit /nɑ̃.ti/	nantîmes /nɑ̃.tim/	nantîtes /nɑ̃.tit/	nantirent /nɑ̃.tiʁ/
	future	nantirai /nɑ̃.ti.ʁe/	nantiras /nɑ̃.ti.ʁa/	nantira /nɑ̃.ti.ʁa/	nantirons /nɑ̃.ti.ʁɔ̃/	nantirez /nɑ̃.ti.ʁe/	nantiront /nɑ̃.ti.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	nantirais /nɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	nantirais /nɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	nantirait /nɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/	nantirions /nɑ̃.ti.ʁjɔ̃/	nantiriez /nɑ̃.ti.ʁje/	nantiraient /nɑ̃.ti.ʁɛ/
(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	nantisse /nɑ̃.tis/	nantisses /nɑ̃.tis/	nantisse /nɑ̃.tis/	nantissions /nɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	nantissiez /nɑ̃.ti.sje/	nantissent /nɑ̃.tis/
	imperfect2	nantisse /nɑ̃.tis/	nantisses /nɑ̃.tis/	nantît /nɑ̃.ti/	nantissions /nɑ̃.ti.sjɔ̃/	nantissiez /nɑ̃.ti.sje/	nantissent /nɑ̃.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	nantis /nɑ̃.ti/	—	nantissons /nɑ̃.ti.sɔ̃/	nantissez /nɑ̃.ti.se/	—
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: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “nantir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.