lorgner

French

Etymology

Of Germanic origin, from Proto-Germanic *lūrni-, from the root *lūr-, *lūraną (“to spy, watch”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“to see”), similar to Dutch loens (“cross-eyed”), Latin luscus (“half-blind”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɔʁ.ɲe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

lorgner (transitive)

1. to ogle
2. to leer
3. to covet
4. to look at using a monocle or lorgnette
5. to look ahead (to)

Conjugation

Conjugation of lorgner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	lorgner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	lorgnant /lɔʁ.ɲɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		lorgné /lɔʁ.ɲe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	lorgne /lɔʁɲ/	lorgnes /lɔʁɲ/	lorgne /lɔʁɲ/	lorgnons /lɔʁ.ɲɔ̃/	lorgnez /lɔʁ.ɲe/	lorgnent /lɔʁɲ/
	imperfect	lorgnais /lɔʁ.ɲɛ/	lorgnais /lɔʁ.ɲɛ/	lorgnait /lɔʁ.ɲɛ/	lorgnions /lɔʁ.ɲjɔ̃/	lorgniez /lɔʁ.ɲje/	lorgnaient /lɔʁ.ɲɛ/
	past historic2	lorgnai /lɔʁ.ɲe/	lorgnas /lɔʁ.ɲa/	lorgna /lɔʁ.ɲa/	lorgnâmes /lɔʁ.ɲam/	lorgnâtes /lɔʁ.ɲat/	lorgnèrent /lɔʁ.ɲɛʁ/
	future	lorgnerai /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁe/	lorgneras /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁa/	lorgnera /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁa/	lorgnerons /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁɔ̃/	lorgnerez /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁe/	lorgneront /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	lorgnerais /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁɛ/	lorgnerais /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁɛ/	lorgnerait /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁɛ/	lorgnerions /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁjɔ̃/	lorgneriez /lɔʁ.ɲə.ʁje/	lorgneraient /lɔʁ.ɲə.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	lorgne /lɔʁɲ/	lorgnes /lɔʁɲ/	lorgne /lɔʁɲ/	lorgnions /lɔʁ.ɲjɔ̃/	lorgniez /lɔʁ.ɲje/	lorgnent /lɔʁɲ/
	imperfect2	lorgnasse /lɔʁ.ɲas/	lorgnasses /lɔʁ.ɲas/	lorgnât /lɔʁ.ɲa/	lorgnassions /lɔʁ.ɲa.sjɔ̃/	lorgnassiez /lɔʁ.ɲa.sje/	lorgnassent /lɔʁ.ɲas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	lorgne /lɔʁɲ/	—	lorgnons /lɔʁ.ɲɔ̃/	lorgnez /lɔʁ.ɲe/	—
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).

Derived terms

• lorgnette

Related terms

• lorgnon

Further reading

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