éclore

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French esclore, from Vulgar Latin *exclaudere, remodelled from Latin exclūdere. Doublet of the borrowing exclure. Compare Piedmontese s-ciòde.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.klɔʁ/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔʁ

Verb

éclore

1. to hatch (for an egg)
2. (by extension) to bloom (for a flower)
   • 1900, Paul Delmet, “Chansons tendres”, in Envoi de Fleurs, page 309:

     Pour vous obliger de penser à moi,
     D’y penser souvent, d’y penser encore,
     Voici quelques fleurs, bien modeste envoi,
     De très humbles fleurs qui viennent d’éclore.

     To help you to think of me,
     To think of me often, to think of me once more,
     Here are some flowers, a real modest gift,
     Some very humble flowers that have just begun to bloom.

3. (figuratively) to hatch (to start, to begin existence)

Conjugation

We can sometimes find the indicative imperfect (éclosais, éclosait, éclosions, éclosiez, éclosaient), the past historic (éclosis, éclosit, éclosîmes, éclosîtes, éclosirent), and subjunctive imperfect (éclosisse, éclosisses, éclosît, éclosissions, éclosissiez, éclosissent). This verb is not conjugated in certain tenses.

Conjugation of éclore (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	éclore
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	éclosant /e.klo.zɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		éclos /e.klo/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	éclos /e.klo/	éclos /e.klo/	éclôt /e.klo/	éclosons /e.klo.zɔ̃/	éclosez /e.klo.ze/	éclosent /e.kloz/
	imperfect	—	—	—	—	—	—
	past historic2	—	—	—	—	—	—
	future	éclorai /e.klɔ.ʁe/	écloras /e.klɔ.ʁa/	éclora /e.klɔ.ʁa/	éclorons /e.klɔ.ʁɔ̃/	éclorez /e.klɔ.ʁe/	écloront /e.klɔ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	éclorais /e.klɔ.ʁɛ/	éclorais /e.klɔ.ʁɛ/	éclorait /e.klɔ.ʁɛ/	éclorions /e.klɔ.ʁjɔ̃/	écloriez /e.klɔ.ʁje/	écloraient /e.klɔ.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	éclose /e.kloz/	écloses /e.kloz/	éclose /e.kloz/	éclosions /e.klo.zjɔ̃/	éclosiez /e.klo.zje/	éclosent /e.kloz/
	imperfect2	—	—	—	—	—	—
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	éclos /e.klo/	—	éclosons /e.klo.zɔ̃/	éclosez /e.klo.ze/	—
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

• écloserie
• éclosion
• rééclore

Related terms

• clore
• déclore

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• colère, créole