"visiter" des personnes?

Question

J'ai bien compris l'usage de "tout ce qui", mais je pensais que l'on ne pouvait "visiter" que des lieux, pas des personnes.

Accepted Answer

Hi Pam, 
The only example I found with 'visiter' was -
Ils ont visité tout ce qui était intéressant dans cette ville 
and the only correct answer was 
They visited everything of interest in this town
Let me know if this is different from what you meant to query.

Answer

I don't know what your remark refers to. Can you quote the complete sentence?

Answer

Le verbe visiter est admis avec un nom de personne en complément d'objet. Exemple: «Je vais visiter mon oncle». Cette

spacebar counter tournure est correcte dans ..L'Académie Française précise que comme par exemple un patient, un prisonnier, un SDF, car le verbe “visiter” véhicule alors une idée de compassion.

Answer

Patri c.

I may have misunderstood what you have written, but the Académie gives ‘ visiter mon oncle ‘ as an example of “ ne pas dire “. It is not supporting its use, but advising against it.

‘ Visiter ‘ applying to people is restricted in use, particularly in current language ( only used for some categories of people in particular situations ) as is described in the académie definition, and covered also by Larousse among other dictionaries:

https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/DNP0252

https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A8V0633

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/visiter/82212