Meaning of -en | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Pertaining to, having the qualities of, resembling, or like.
   morpheme
2. Used to form the diminutives of certain nouns.
   morpheme
3. Denotes a female form of a few nouns.
   morpheme
4. Used to form the infinitive of verbs.
   morpheme, obsolete
5. Used to form the plural present tense of verbs.
   morpheme, obsolete
6. Denotes the past participle form when attached to a verb.
   idiomatic, morpheme
7. Denotes a quasi-past participle or participle-like adjective when attached to a noun or verb.
   archaic, morpheme, not-comparable
8. 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.
   morpheme
9. 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)".
   morpheme
10. When attached to certain nouns that are the names of a material, it forms an adjective whose meaning is, made of (noun).
    morpheme
11. Used to form the plural past tense of verbs.
    morpheme, obsolete
12. Used to form the plural of nouns.
    dialectal, humorous, morpheme, nonstandard, often, rare

Equivalents

Examples

“take + -en → taken”

“forgive + -en → forgiven”

“prove + -en → proven”

“fork + -en → forken (“forked”)”

“pave + -en → paven (“paved”)”

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

“enslave + -en → enslaven (“enslaved”)”

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

“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”

“Moder, gyn, will not y washen' the dishen'. i. Mother, Jone, will not wash the dishes.”

“box + -en → boxen”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“white (adjective) + -en → whiten”

“quick + -en → quicken”

“strength (noun) + -en → strengthen”

“haste + -en → hasten”

“night + -en → nighten”

“wolf + -en → wolven”

“peach + -en → peachen”

“goat + -en → goaten”

“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")”

“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: line (“flax”) + -en → linen”

“chick + -en → chicken”

“maid + -en → maiden”

“smitch, smidge + -en → smidgen”

“fox + -en → vixen (“female fox”)”

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

“The Sonne compell'd, beene Butcher to the Sire[…]”

“As gentle Shepheard in sweete euen-tide, When ruddy Phoebus gins to welke in west, High on an hill, his flocke to vewen wide […]”

“From others' labours; for though he strive / To killen bad, keep good alive;”

“So forth they marchen in this goodly sort, / To take the solace of the open aire,”

“All periſhen of man, of pelfe, / Ne ought eſcapend but himſelfe; […]”

“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.”

“Her name was Agape whoſe children werne / All three as one, the firſt hight Priamond, / The ſecond Dyamond, the youngeſt Triamond.”

“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.”

“[…] 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.”

CEFR level