Etymology

strengthen

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Today it means: To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify. Full definition →

Middle English strengthenen ← Old English strengþu ← Proto-West Germanic *strangiþu
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*strengʰ-
  2. Proto-Germanic*strangaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic*strang
  4. Proto-West Germanic*strangiþu
  5. Old Englishstrengþu
  6. Middle Englishstrengthe
  7. Middle Englishstrengthen
  8. Middle Englishstrengthenen
  9. English todaystrengthen

From rare Middle English strengthenen (14th c.), from earlier strengthen (12th c.), where -en is the infinitive ending. Probably the original form was reinterpreted as strength + -en around the time when the infinitive ending was being apocopated in late Middle English.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.