relayer

English

Etymology 1

From relay +‎ -er.

Noun

relayer (plural relayers)

1. One who, or that which, relays.
2. An athlete who takes part in a relay race.

Translations

athlete in a relay race

• Finnish: viestijuoksija, viestinviejä
• French: relayeur (fr) m, relayeuse (fr) f
• Italian: staffettista m

Etymology 2

From re- +‎ layer.

Verb

relayer (third-person singular simple present relayers, present participle relayering, simple past and past participle relayered)

1. To layer again.

French

Etymology

From re- +‎ laier (“old dialect term: to leave”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.lɛ.je/ ~ /ʁə.le.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

relayer

1. (historical, intransitive) to relay, change horses
   • 1874, Barbey d'Aurevilly, ‘Le Rideau cramoisi’, Les Diaboliques:

     La rue, – où passaient chaque nuit deux diligences en sens inverses […] qui toutes deux s’arrêtaient à l’Hôtel de la Poste pour relayer, – la rue était silencieuse comme le fond d’un puits.

     The street – where every night two carriages passed in opposite directions, both of which stopped at the Hôtel de la Poste to change horses – the street was as silent as the bottom of a well.

2. (transitive) to relieve, take over from
3. (transitive) to replace
4. (transitive) to transmit, relay (information)
5. (reflexive) to take turns, to alternate

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer), 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).

Conjugation of relayer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	relayer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	relayant /ʁə.lɛ.jɑ̃/ or /ʁə.le.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		relayé /ʁə.lɛ.je/ or /ʁə.le.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	relaye or relaie /ʁə.lɛj/ or /ʁə.lɛ/	relayes or relaies /ʁə.lɛj/ or /ʁə.lɛ/	relaye or relaie /ʁə.lɛj/ or /ʁə.lɛ/	relayons /ʁə.lɛ.jɔ̃/ or /ʁə.le.jɔ̃/	relayez /ʁə.lɛ.je/ or /ʁə.le.je/	relayent or relaient /ʁə.lɛj/ or /ʁə.lɛ/
	imperfect	relayais /ʁə.lɛ.jɛ/ or /ʁə.le.jɛ/	relayais /ʁə.lɛ.jɛ/ or /ʁə.le.jɛ/	relayait /ʁə.lɛ.jɛ/ or /ʁə.le.jɛ/	relayions /ʁə.lɛj.jɔ̃/	relayiez /ʁə.lɛj.je/	relayaient /ʁə.lɛ.jɛ/ or /ʁə.le.jɛ/
	past historic2	relayai /ʁə.lɛ.je/ or /ʁə.le.je/	relayas /ʁə.lɛ.ja/ or /ʁə.le.ja/	relaya /ʁə.lɛ.ja/ or /ʁə.le.ja/	relayâmes /ʁə.lɛ.jam/ or /ʁə.le.jam/	relayâtes /ʁə.lɛ.jat/ or /ʁə.le.jat/	relayèrent /ʁə.lɛ.jɛʁ/ or /ʁə.le.jɛʁ/
	future	relayerai or relaierai /ʁə.lɛj.ʁe/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁe/ or /ʁə.le.ʁe/	relayeras or relaieras /ʁə.lɛj.ʁa/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁa/ or /ʁə.le.ʁa/	relayera or relaiera /ʁə.lɛj.ʁa/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁa/ or /ʁə.le.ʁa/	relayerons or relaierons /ʁə.lɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.le.ʁɔ̃/	relayerez or relaierez /ʁə.lɛj.ʁe/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁe/ or /ʁə.le.ʁe/	relayeront or relaieront /ʁə.lɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /ʁə.le.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	relayerais or relaierais /ʁə.lɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ʁə.le.ʁɛ/	relayerais or relaierais /ʁə.lɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ʁə.le.ʁɛ/	relayerait or relaierait /ʁə.lɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ʁə.le.ʁɛ/	relayerions or relaierions /ʁə.lɛ.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.le.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.le.ʁjɔ̃/	relayeriez or relaieriez /ʁə.lɛ.jə.ʁje/ or /ʁə.le.jə.ʁje/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁje/ or /ʁə.le.ʁje/	relayeraient or relaieraient /ʁə.lɛj.ʁɛ/ or /ʁə.lɛ.ʁɛ/ or /ʁə.le.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	relaye or relaie /ʁə.lɛj/ or /ʁə.lɛ/	relayes or relaies /ʁə.lɛj/ or /ʁə.lɛ/	relaye or relaie /ʁə.lɛj/ or /ʁə.lɛ/	relayions /ʁə.lɛj.jɔ̃/	relayiez /ʁə.lɛj.je/	relayent or relaient /ʁə.lɛj/ or /ʁə.lɛ/
	imperfect2	relayasse /ʁə.lɛ.jas/ or /ʁə.le.jas/	relayasses /ʁə.lɛ.jas/ or /ʁə.le.jas/	relayât /ʁə.lɛ.ja/ or /ʁə.le.ja/	relayassions /ʁə.lɛ.ja.sjɔ̃/ or /ʁə.le.ja.sjɔ̃/	relayassiez /ʁə.lɛ.ja.sje/ or /ʁə.le.ja.sje/	relayassent /ʁə.lɛ.jas/ or /ʁə.le.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	relaye or relaie /ʁə.lɛj/ or /ʁə.lɛ/	—	relayons /ʁə.lɛ.jɔ̃/ or /ʁə.le.jɔ̃/	relayez /ʁə.lɛ.je/ or /ʁə.le.je/	—
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).

Further reading

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