-en

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Pronunciation

• IPA: /ən/, [ən], [n̩]

Etymology 1

From Middle English -n, -en, past participle ending of strong verbs (compare Middle English take(n), took, taken), from Old Norse -inn, past participle ending of strong verbs (compare Old Norse taka, tók, tekinn).

Suffix

1. (no longer productive) Denotes the past participle form when attached to a verb.

   take + -en → taken

   forgive + -en → forgiven

   prove + -en → proven

2. Denotes a quasi-past participle or participle-like adjective when attached to a noun or verb.

   fork + -en → forken

   pave + -en → paven

   barefoot + -en → bare-footen

   enslave + -en → enslaven

Etymology 2

From Middle English -en, from Old English -an, from Proto-Germanic *-an-, *-in-, from Proto-Indo-European *-én-.

From Middle English -n (in words ending in a vowel: flee: fleen "flea: fleas") and -en.

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 + -en → aurochsen

   brother + -en → brethren (religious sense)

   child + -en → children (cf. childer)

   ox + -en → oxen

   Archaic or dialectal examples:

   bee + -en → been

   cheese + -en → cheesen

   ky + -en → kine

   knee + -en → kneen

   eyre#Middle English + -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

2. (non-standard, rare, often, dialectal or jocular) Used to form the plural of nouns.

   box + -en → boxen

   w:VAX + -en → VAXen

Related terms

• -ren

Etymology 3

From Middle English -enen, -(e)nien, from Old English -nian, from Proto-West Germanic *-inōn, from Proto-Germanic *-inōną.

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)".

   white + -en → whiten

   quick + -en → quicken

   strength + -en → strengthen

   haste + -en → hasten

   night + -en → nighten

Translations

• Portuguese: -ecer, -escer

Etymology 4

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.

Suffix

1. Suffix meaning "pertaining to", "having the qualities of", "resembling", "like".

   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 used in a literal and sometimes metaphorical sense:

   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

   Examples where a metaphorical sense is common but the literal sense is rare or archaic:

   brass + -en → brazen ("shameless")

   Rare or archaic examples:

   ash + -en → ashen ("made of ash-tree wood"; ashen "grey like ashes, appalled" is still current)

   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

   Orphan examples:

   line + -en → linen

Etymology 5

From Middle English -en, from Old English -en, from the neuter form of -en.

Suffix

1. Used to form the diminutives of certain nouns.

   chick + -en → chicken

   maid + -en → maiden

   smitch, smidge + -en → smidgen

Etymology 6

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

Suffix

1. Denotes a female form of a few nouns.

   fox + -en → vixen

   monk + -en → minchen (obsolete)

Etymology 7

From Middle English -en, a blending of Old English infinitives -an and -n, from Proto-Germanic *-aną; and Old English -on and -en, the indicative and subjunctive past tense plural endings of verbs.

Suffix

1. (obsolete) Used to form the infinitive of verbs.
2. (obsolete) Used to form the plural present tense of verbs.
3. (obsolete, now non-standard, dialectal) Used to form the plural past tense of verbs.

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