Appears at first glance to be fromMiddle Englishleyer,leyare(“a layer of stones or bricks”), equivalent tolay +-er. In which case, ultimately identical to etymology 2 below. For the pronunciation compareprayer.
However, this wordlayer (referring to a thickness of a material covering a surface) has also been argued to be from a respelling of an obsolete sense of the wordlair that was once used by farmers, which had to do with soil. The connecting sense between the usual meaning oflair and the specialised farming meaning was: an area where cows typically rest, the ground being fertilised by their waste. Related tolie,ledger.
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layer (plurallayers)
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layer (third-person singular simple presentlayers,present participlelayering,simple past and past participlelayered)
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layer (plurallayers)
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Old Frenchlayer,Frankish*lākan.
layer
This is a regular-er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in-ayer (such aspayer andessayer), the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in-eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in-oyer and-uyer, which always have it; verbs in-ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).
| infinitive | simple | layer | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle orgerund1 | simple | layant /lɛ.jɑ̃/ or/le.jɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | layé /lɛ.je/ or/le.je/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | laye orlaie /lɛj/ or/lɛ/ | layes orlaies /lɛj/ or/lɛ/ | laye orlaie /lɛj/ or/lɛ/ | layons /lɛ.jɔ̃/ or/le.jɔ̃/ | layez /lɛ.je/ or/le.je/ | layent orlaient /lɛj/ or/lɛ/ |
| imperfect | layais /lɛ.jɛ/ or/le.jɛ/ | layais /lɛ.jɛ/ or/le.jɛ/ | layait /lɛ.jɛ/ or/le.jɛ/ | layions /lɛj.jɔ̃/ | layiez /lɛj.je/ | layaient /lɛ.jɛ/ or/le.jɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | layai /lɛ.je/ or/le.je/ | layas /lɛ.ja/ or/le.ja/ | laya /lɛ.ja/ or/le.ja/ | layâmes /lɛ.jam/ or/le.jam/ | layâtes /lɛ.jat/ or/le.jat/ | layèrent /lɛ.jɛʁ/ or/le.jɛʁ/ | |
| future | layerai orlaierai /lɛj.ʁe/ or/lɛ.ʁe/ or/le.ʁe/ | layeras orlaieras /lɛj.ʁa/ or/lɛ.ʁa/ or/le.ʁa/ | layera orlaiera /lɛj.ʁa/ or/lɛ.ʁa/ or/le.ʁa/ | layerons orlaierons /lɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or/lɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or/le.ʁɔ̃/ | layerez orlaierez /lɛj.ʁe/ or/lɛ.ʁe/ or/le.ʁe/ | layeront orlaieront /lɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or/lɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or/le.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | layerais orlaierais /lɛj.ʁɛ/ or/lɛ.ʁɛ/ or/le.ʁɛ/ | layerais orlaierais /lɛj.ʁɛ/ or/lɛ.ʁɛ/ or/le.ʁɛ/ | layerait orlaierait /lɛj.ʁɛ/ or/lɛ.ʁɛ/ or/le.ʁɛ/ | layerions orlaierions /lɛ.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or/le.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or/lɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or/le.ʁjɔ̃/ | layeriez orlaieriez /lɛ.jə.ʁje/ or/le.jə.ʁje/ or/lɛ.ʁje/ or/le.ʁje/ | layeraient orlaieraient /lɛj.ʁɛ/ or/lɛ.ʁɛ/ or/le.ʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) | present perfect | present indicative ofavoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative ofavoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic ofavoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future ofavoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional ofavoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | laye orlaie /lɛj/ or/lɛ/ | layes orlaies /lɛj/ or/lɛ/ | laye orlaie /lɛj/ or/lɛ/ | layions /lɛj.jɔ̃/ | layiez /lɛj.je/ | layent orlaient /lɛj/ or/lɛ/ |
| imperfect2 | layasse /lɛ.jas/ or/le.jas/ | layasses /lɛ.jas/ or/le.jas/ | layât /lɛ.ja/ or/le.ja/ | layassions /lɛ.ja.sjɔ̃/ or/le.ja.sjɔ̃/ | layassiez /lɛ.ja.sje/ or/le.ja.sje/ | layassent /lɛ.jas/ or/le.jas/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive ofavoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive ofavoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | laye orlaie /lɛj/ or/lɛ/ | — | layons /lɛ.jɔ̃/ or/le.jɔ̃/ | layez /lɛ.je/ or/le.je/ | — | |
| compound | — | simple imperative ofavoir + past participle | — | simple imperative ofavoir + past participle | simple imperative ofavoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the prepositionen. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995],Master the Basics: French, pp.77,78,79,81). | |||||||