Appauvrit

Appauvrit is a form of the French verb appauvrir, meaning to impoverish or deprive of wealth. Specifically, appauvrit is the third-person singular form in two distinct tenses: the present indicative (il appauvrit, he impoverishes) and the passé simple (il appauvrit, he impoverished). The form is therefore a homograph, appearing identically in two different grammatical contexts, which are distinguished by tense and narrative function. In modern usage, the present tense is common in everyday speech, while the passé simple is primarily found in literary, historical, or formal narrative writing.

Etymology traces appauvrir to the adjective pauvre (poor) with the verbal suffix -ir, deriving from a historical process of making someone or something poorer. The word commonly collocates with elements representing resources, wealth, land, or institutions when describing processes of depletion or deprivation.

Usage and register: appauvrit tends to appear in literary or historical texts rather than contemporary conversation. In contemporary French, speakers would typically employ appauvrit in the present tense for ongoing impoverishment or use the compound passé composé il a appauvri to express a completed past action. The noun appauvrissement (impoverishment) and the adjective appauvri (impoverished, poor) are closely related terms.

See also: appauvrissement, pauvre, appauvrir, impoverished as a broader semantic category in French literature.