English
-en
Pronunciation
  • (usually) IPA: /ən/
  • (after /t/, /d/ also) IPA: /n̩/
Suffix
  1. Denotes the past participle form when attached to a verb.
    As in take, taken; forgive, forgiven; prove, proven
  2. Denotes a quasi-past participle or participle-like adjective when attached to a noun or verb.
    As in forken; paven; bare-footen, enslaven
Suffix
  1. 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.
    Examples in general modern use: aurochs, aurochsen; brother, brethren (religious sense); child, children; ox, oxen.
    Archaic or dialect examples: bee, been; cheese, cheesen; cow, kine; knee, kneen; ey, eyren; eye, eyen; hose, hosen; house, housen; pease, peasen; shoe, shoon; sister, sistren; tree, treen.
  2. (non-standard, rare) Used to form the plural of nouns.
Suffix
  1. 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)".
Suffix
  1. Suffix meaning "pertaining to", "having the qualities of", "resembling", "like".
    elf + -en → elfin
    wolf + -en → wolven
    peach + -en → peachen
    goat + -en → goaten
  2. When attached to certain nouns that are the names of a material, it forms an adjective whose meaning is, made of (noun). This is a formative pattern with many obsolescent remnants. Fowler (1926) pointed out the tendency for the -en forms to be restricted to metaphorical and secondary senses. Changes in the form of the root noun, and the dropping of the "e" in the suffix occur. There are also orphan formations whose root has been lost to the current language.
    Current examples: wood, wooden; gold, golden; brass, brazen; ash, ashen; wheat, wheaten
    Rare or archaic examples: bronze, bronzen; silver, silvern; copper, coppern; paper, papern; brick, bricken; board, boarden; tree, treen
    Orphan examples: linen (flax was once called lin).
Suffix
  1. Used to form the diminutives of certain nouns.
    chicken
    maiden
    kitten
Suffix
  1. (obsolete) Used to form the infinitive of verbs.
  2. (obsolete) Used to form the plural present tense of verbs.


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