-en

alternative -n

1. idiomaticDenotes the past participle form when attached to a verb.

   take + -en → taken

   2 more examples

   forgive + -en → forgiven

   prove + -en → proven

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

   pave + -en → paven (“paved”)

   3 more examples

   fork + -en → forken (“forked”)

   barefoot + -en → bare-footen (“bare-footed”)

   enslave + -en → enslaven (“enslaved”)

alternative -n

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.

   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 more examples

   aurochs + -en → aurochsen brother + -en → brethren (religious sense) child + -en → children (cf. childer) ox + -en → oxen

   Examples in general modern use

   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

2. dialectalhumorousnonstandardoftenrareUsed to form the plural of nouns.

   box + -en → boxen

   4 more examples

   VAX + -en → VAXen

   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

present singular third person -ens · participle present -ening · participle past -ened · past -ened

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)".

   haste + -en → hasten

   4 more examples

   white (adjective) + -en → whiten

   quick + -en → quicken

   strength (noun) + -en → strengthen

   night + -en → nighten

comparative more -en · superlative most -en · alternative -n · alternative rare -in

1. Pertaining to, having the qualities of, resembling, or like.

   wolf + -en → wolven

   3 more examples

   wolf + -en → wolfen

   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).

   Orphan examples: line (“flax”) + -en → linen

   3 more examples

   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

   Examples where a metaphorical sense is common but the literal sense is rare or archaic: brass + -en → brazen ("shameless")

   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

plural -ens

1. Used to form the diminutives of certain nouns.

   maid + -en → maiden

   2 more examples

   chick + -en → chicken

   smitch, smidge + -en → smidgen

plural -ens

1. Denotes a female form of a few nouns.

   fox + -en → vixen (“female fox”)

   1 more example

   monk + -en → minchen (“nun”) (obsolete)

1. obsoleteUsed to form the infinitive of verbs.

   The Sonne compell’d, beene Butcher to the Sire;

   The son was compelled to be a 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

   2 more examples

   As gentle Shepheard in ſweete euentide, / When ruddy Phebus gins to welke in weſt, / High on an hill, his flocke to vewen wide

   As a gentle shepherd in sweet eventide, / When ruddy Phoebus begins to walk westward, / High on an hill, for his flock to view widely

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 23, page 9

   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]

1. obsoleteUsed 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

   1 more example

   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. obsoleteUsed 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

   2 more examples

   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.

   Now, if anybody asks you where those [people over there] get these [things], you must say you had 'em from the boggard of Deerpley Fell. Goodbye, master; and now, lads, let's [go back] to our work.

   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

1. Indicates the presence of a carbon-carbon double bond.