cire

Back-formation from ciré (“glossy”).

cire (countable and uncountable, plural cires)

1. A fabric with a glazed finish.

• ERIC, Eric, RICE, Rice, eric, icer, rice

Inherited from Middle French cire, from Old French cire, chiere, ciere, from Latin cēra.

• IPA^(key): /siʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: cirent, cires, sire, sires

cire f (plural cires)

1. wax
2. beeswax
   • 1647, René Descartes, translated by Louis-Charles d'Albert de Luynes, Méditations métaphysiques [Meditations on First Philosophy]:

     Prenons par exemple ce morceau de cire: il vient tout fraîchement d'être tiré de la ruche, il n'a pas encore perdu la douceur du miel qu'il contenoit, il retient encore quelque chose de l'odeur des fleurs dont il a été recueilli […]

     Let us take as an example this piece of beeswax. It has just been taken from the honeycomb, all fresh; it has not yet lost the sweetness of the honey that it held; it yet retains something of the scent of the flowers from which it was gathered […]

3. earwax
4. sealing wax
5. (wax) taper (wax candle)
6. cere

cire

1. inflection of cirer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

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

• crie, crié
• Éric

cīre

1. inflection of ciō:
   1. present active infinitive
   2. second-person singular present passive imperative/indicative