-en
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See also: Appendix:Variations of "en"
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Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ən/, [ən], [n̩]
Audio (Southern England): (file) - In many accents, -en routinely gives up its vowel syllable when given additional suffixes. For example, fatten /ˈfæt.ən/ + -ing /-ɪŋ/ can be /ˈfæt.ən.ɪŋ/ or /ˈfæt.nɪŋ/.
- Even in many accents where this habitual syllable deletion is less usual, the syllable loss may still predominate for certain formations that have become common words in their own right, such as gardener /ɡɑː(ɹ)d.nə(ɹ)/.
- Syllable loss is sometimes prevented to avoid merging with more normalized derivatives, such as for keeping lightening /ˈlaɪt.ən.ɪŋ/ from being pronounced identically to the established term lightning /ˈlaɪt.nɪŋ/ (notice the e is no longer written), even though they derive from a combination of lighten + -ing.
- But syllable loss may resume with inflections that are not in danger of merging with an established word, such as enlightening, which can be pronounced /ɛnˈlaɪt.ən.ɪŋ/ or /ɛnˈlaɪt.nɪŋ/ because "enlightning" is not a common word.
Etymology 1
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.
Alternative forms
Suffix
-en
- (no longer productive) Denotes the past participle form when attached to a verb.
- Denotes a quasi-past participle or participle-like adjective when attached to a noun or verb.
Usage notes
Some linguistic writing on English, such as The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, uses -en as the name of an abstract morpheme which forms the past participle of all English verbs. Including ones which do not actually use the suffix -en are described as "cook + -en → cooked".
Derived terms
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. Noun plural marker (predominantly in Southern dialects of Middle English), from Old English nominative-accusative plural ending of weak nouns (n-stem declension); compare nama m (“name”) + -en → naman (“names”); hlǣfdīġe f (“lady”) + -en → hlǣfdīġan (“ladies”); ēare n (“ear”) + -en → ēaran (“ears”). Assisted by Middle English dative plural ending -n, -en from late O.E. -un, -on, weakened form of earlier -um. Akin to Old High German n-stem (compare namo: namon "name: names"), Latin n-stem (compare homo: homin-).
Alternative forms
Suffix
-en
- 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:
- Archaic or dialectal examples:
- 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
- 1890, John Drummond Robertson, lord Henry Haughton Reynolds Moreton, A Glossary of Dialect & Archaic Words Used in the County of Gloucester:
- Moder, gyn, will not y washen' the dishen'. i. Mother, Jone, will not wash the dishes.
- (nonstandard, rare, often dialectal or humorous) Used to form the plural of nouns.
- 2007, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology:
- 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.
- 2012, Jenny Lawson, Let's Pretend This Never Happened:
- 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.
- 2015, David Greygoose, Brunt Boggart:
- 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.
Usage notes
- Not productive, outside of occasional humorous use, particularly in computer hacker subculture. Notable examples are boxen, Unixen, VAXen, all of which are modelled on oxen.
- This ending is also found on some plurals that were borrowed intact from Dutch or German, like klompen, lagerstätten, lederhosen.
Derived terms
Related terms
See also
Etymology 3
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.
Suffix
-en
- 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)".
Usage notes
- Although -en is a very common verb ending, it is not currently very productive in forming new words, being mostly restricted to monosyllabic bases which end in an obstruent; new formations tend to be nonstandard or humorous.
Derived terms
Translations
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. Akin to Dutch -en, German -en, Icelandic -inn, Latin -īnus. See -ine.
Alternative forms
Suffix
-en
- Suffix meaning "pertaining to", "having the qualities of", "resembling", "like".
- 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:
- Examples where a metaphorical sense is common but the literal sense is rare or archaic:
- Rare or archaic examples:
- 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
- Orphan examples:
Derived terms
Etymology 5
From Middle English -en, from Old English -en, from the neuter form of -en (“pertaining to”, adjective-forming suffix).
Suffix
-en
- Used to form the diminutives of certain nouns.
Derived terms
See also
Etymology 6
From Middle English -en, from Old English -en, from Proto-West Germanic *inī.
Suffix
-en
Etymology 7
From Middle English -en, from Old English -an, from Proto-Germanic *-aną.
Suffix
-en
- (obsolete) Used to form the infinitive of verbs.
- 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, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- The Sonne compell'd, beene Butcher to the Sire […]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- As gentle Shepheard in sweete euen-tide, When ruddy Phoebus gins to welke in west, High on an hill, his flocke to vewen wide […]
- c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:
- From others' labours; for though he strive
To killen bad, keep good alive;
Usage notes
- Having begun to fade by the 15th century, it was used in Early Modern English primarily to show archaic or rustic speech; there are no undoubted traces of it in the modern traditional dialects.
- The weakening and loss of the marker caused some verbs to blend with verbs marked by Etymology 3; for example, Middle English leren (“to teach”) blended with lernen (“to learn”), which resulted in learn having a (dialectal) double meaning.
Etymology 8
From Middle English -en, from Old English -on and -en, the indicative and subjunctive past tense plural endings of verbs.
Suffix
-en
- (obsolete) Used to form the plural present tense of verbs.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- So forth they marchen in this goodly sort,
To take the solace of the open aire,
- c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- All periſhen of man, of pelfe,
Ne ought eſcapend but himſelfe; […]
- 1905 May 13, M. E. Francis, “Mrs Gradwell's Piano”, in Country Life, volume XVII, number 436, Country Life, Limited, page 678:
- 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.
- (obsolete) Used to form the plural past tense of verbs.
- 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:
- Her name was Agape whoſe children werne
All three as one, the firſt hight Priamond,
The ſecond Dyamond, the youngeſt Triamond.
- 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:
- 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.
Usage notes
- Though it slightly outlived the homophonous infinitival ending in the standard language, verbal plural -en disappeared from it during the 15th century except as a conscious archaism, though it was maintained in the traditional dialects of England's northwestern Midlands (southern Cheshire, Derbyshire, southern Lancashire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire) and northeastern Wales, though it was lost there in the past tense over the course of the 19th century.
Derived terms
References
Anagrams
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