Dictionary

-en en · X · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ən/
• [ən]
• [n̩]

Etymology

From Middle English -n, -en, past participle ending of strong verbs (compare Middle English take(n), took, taken (“take, took, taken”)), from Old English -en and Old Norse -inn, past participle ending of strong verbs (compare Old Norse taka, tók, tekinn (“take, took, taken”)), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *-inaz, a variant of *-anaz. In Middle English, the suffix was often weakened to -e or disappeared (compare Southern Middle English do(n), dud(e), ydo (“do, did, done”)), but not in others (compare cume(n), com, ycume (“come, came, come”)), from Proto-Germanic *-anaz, from Proto-Indo-European *-nós.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, morpheme) Denotes the past participle form when attached to a verb.
   • prove + -en → proven
   • forgive + -en → forgiven
   • take + -en → taken
2. (archaic, morpheme) Denotes a quasi-past participle or participle-like adjective when attached to a noun or verb.
   • pave + -en → paven (“paved”)
   • fork + -en → forken (“forked”)
   • enslave + -en → enslaven (“enslaved”)
   • barefoot + -en → bare-footen (“bare-footed”)

Forms

-en en · X · etymology 2

Etymology

From Middle English -en, -n, the plural suffix of weak nouns (n-stems), from Old English -an, from Proto-West Germanic *-an m, *-ōn f or n, from Proto-Germanic *-an- m, *-ōn- f or n, from Proto-Indo-European *-on-, o-grade form of the n-stem suffix. Reinforced by the early Middle English dative plural ending -en, from late Old English -an, weakened form of earlier -um.

Meanings

1. (morpheme) Used to denote the plural form of a small number of English nouns, the majority of whose etymologies go back to the n-stem (i.e. weak noun) declension of Germanic languages.
   • bee + -en → been cheese + -en → cheesen ky (“cows”) + -en → kine knee + -en → kneen eyre (“eggs”) + -en → eyren eye + -en → eyen feather + -en → feathern fox + -en → foxen horse + -en → horsen hose + -en → hosen house + -en → housen pease + -en → peasen shoe + -en → shoon sister + -en → sistren tree + -en → treen Archaic or dialectal examples
   • aurochs + -en → aurochsen brother + -en → brethren (religious sense) child + -en → children (cf. childer) ox + -en → oxen Examples in general modern use
   • Moder, gyn, will not y washen' the dishen'. i. Mother, Jone, will not wash the dishes. 1890, John Drummond Robertson, lord Henry Haughton Reynolds Moreton, A Glossary of Dialect & Archaic Words Used in the County of Gloucester, page 200:
2. (dialectal, humorous, morpheme, nonstandard, often, rare) Used to form the plural of nouns.
   • There was one other user logged in, “scaredy,” and he checked the process monitor and saw that scaredy had spawned all the hundreds of processes that were probing him and plenty of other boxen. 2007 October 1, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology, →ISBN, page 398:
   • Victor and I are having a huge argument about whether or not to feed the foxen. Victor says yes, because they're adorable and— according to the neighbors—are quite tame. I say no, because we have a fat little pug who likes to frolic outside occasionally and I don't want to see him eaten. I thought we were on the same page about the fox, but then Victor went and threw an apple at it. And I was all, “What the fuck? We don't feed the foxen,” and he said, “I was throwing the apple at it to chase it away,” but Victor is a tremendous liar, and he didn't go to pick up the apple, probably because he knows that foxen love apple cider. 2012 April 17, Jenny Lawson, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, →ISBN:
   • For now the boys grew whiskers and hung fox pelts from their shoulders and the girlen all wore scarlet skirts and braided ribbons through their hair. 2015, David Greygoose, Brunt Boggart, published 27 September 2018, →ISBN:
   • box + -en → boxen
   • VAX + -en → VAXen

Forms

Relateds

-ren

wikipedia: Middle English

-en en · X · etymology 3

Etymology

From Middle English -(e)nen, -(e)nien, from Old English -nian, from Proto-West Germanic *-inōn, from Proto-Germanic *-inōną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian -enje, West Frisian -enje, Danish -ne, Swedish -na, Icelandic -na.

Meanings

1. (morpheme) When attached to certain adjectives, it forms a transitive verb whose meaning is, to make (adjective). Usually, the verb is ergative, sometimes not. The same construction could also be done to certain (fewer) nouns, as, strengthen, in which case the verb means roughly, "to give (noun) to", or "to become like (noun)".
   • white (adjective) + -en → whiten
   • night + -en → nighten
   • haste + -en → hasten
   • strength (noun) + -en → strengthen
   • quick + -en → quicken

Forms

Translations (9)

da -ne (to make [adjective], to cause to be [adjective]) · da -gøre (to make [adjective], to cause to be [adjective]) · pt -escer (to make [adjective], to cause to be [adjective]) · sv -na (to make [adjective], to cause to be [adjective]) · fr -ir (to make [adjective], to cause to be [adjective]) · eo -igi (to make [adjective], to cause to be [adjective]) · hu -ít (to make [adjective], to cause to be [adjective]) · es -ecer (to make [adjective], to cause to be [adjective]) · pt -ecer (to make [adjective], to cause to be [adjective])

-en en · X · etymology 4

Etymology

From Middle English -en, from Old English -en, from Proto-West Germanic *-īn, from Proto-Germanic *-īnaz; suffix meaning "made of, consisting of, having the qualities of" applied to nouns to form adjectives. Akin to Dutch -en, German -en, Icelandic -inn, Latin -īnus. See -ine.

Meanings

1. (morpheme) Pertaining to, having the qualities of, resembling, or like.
   • wolf + -en → wolfen
   • peach + -en → peachen
   • wolf + -en → wolven
   • goat + -en → goaten
2. (morpheme) When attached to certain nouns that are the names of a material, it forms an adjective whose meaning is, made of (noun).
   • Examples where a metaphorical sense is common but the literal sense is rare or archaic: brass + -en → brazen ("shameless")
   • Orphan examples: line (“flax”) + -en → linen
   • wood + -en → wooden gold + -en → golden wheat + -en → wheaten oat + -en → oaten silk + -en → silken earth + -en → earthen flax + -en → flaxen lead + -en → leaden wool + -en → woollen oak + -en → oaken Current examples used in a literal and sometimes metaphorical sense
   • ash + -en → ashen ("made of ash-tree wood"; ashen "grey like ashes, appalled" is still current) beech + -en → beechen ("made of wood from, or otherwise concerning, the beech tree") box + -en → boxen ("made of boxwood") bronze + -en → bronzen silver + -en → silvern cedar + -en → cedarn leather + -en → leathern copper + -en → coppern paper + -en → papern brick + -en → bricken board + -en → boarden tree + -en → treen hemp + -en → hempen Rare or archaic examples

Forms

-en en · X · etymology 5

Etymology

From Middle English -en, from Old English -en, from the neuter form of -en (“pertaining to”, adjective-forming suffix).

Meanings

1. (morpheme) Used to form the diminutives of certain nouns.
   • maid + -en → maiden
   • smitch, smidge + -en → smidgen
   • chick + -en → chicken

Forms

Relateds

-ock · -ling

-en en · X · etymology 6

Etymology

From Middle English -ene, -en, from Old English -en, from Proto-West Germanic *-ini, from Proto-Germanic *-inī.

Meanings

1. (morpheme) Denotes a female form of a few nouns.
   • fox + -en → vixen (“female fox”)
   • monk + -en → minchen (“nun”) (obsolete)

Forms

-en en · X · etymology 7

Etymology

From Middle English -en, from Old English -an, from Proto-West Germanic *-an, from Proto-Germanic *-aną. Compare -y (intransitive infinitive ending).

Meanings

1. (morpheme, obsolete) Used to form the infinitive of verbs.
   • From others' labours; for though he strive / To killen bad, keep good alive; c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II]:
   • The Sonne compell’d, beene Butcher to the Sire; c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], page 204, column 2, line 39:
   • As gentle Shepheard in ſweete euentide, / When ruddy Phebus gins to welke in weſt, / High on an hill, his flocke to vewen wide 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 23, page 9:

-en en · X · etymology 8

Etymology

From Middle English -en, from Old English -on and -en, the indicative and subjunctive past tense plural endings of verbs.

Meanings

1. (morpheme, obsolete) Used to form the plural present tense of verbs.
   • All things perish, whether man or pelf, / Should not escape but from itself; c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II, prologue], signature C, verso:
   • Hoo'll never do no good at the music, they tellen her up at the school, wi'out hoo practises reg'lar, an' it's unpossible for her to do that wi'out we has a pianney i' the 'ouse. 1905 May 13, M. E. Francis, “Mrs Gradwell's Piano”, in Country Life, volume XVII, number 436, Country Life, Limited, page 678:
2. (morpheme, obsolete) Used to form the plural past tense of verbs.
   • Her name was Agape whoſe children werne / All three as one, the firſt hight Priamond, / The ſecond Dyamond, the youngeſt Triamond. 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IIII, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 32:
   • Nau, if ony chap ax you wheere yone getten these, yo mun say, yo hadden um fro' t' boggart o' Deerpley Fell. Good-bye, meaustur; and nau, lads, let's to our wark. 1860, Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth, “The Attack on the Eagle Mill—The Ride to the Rescue”, in Scarsdale, or, Life on the Yorkshire-Lancashire Border, Thirty Years Ago, volume 1, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 61:
   • ‘So then they all wenten to the ’ouse, an’ the Runnellses wun in a most despert way when they sidden the bŏŏgies comin’, but they tooken on ’em soft, an’ maden out as they wun right glad to see ’em agen, an axt ’em to come in an’ a some mate an’ drink. 1883, Charlotte Sophia Burne, Georgina Frederica Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings, volume 1, London: Trübner & Company, page 46:

-en en · X · etymology 9

Etymology

From French -ène.

Meanings

1. (morpheme) Indicates the presence of a carbon-carbon double bond.

Deriveds

citropten · bergapten · isobergapten · vaccenic