-en

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "en"

Contents

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (usually) IPA(key): /ən/
  • (after /t/, /d/ also) IPA(key): /n̩/
  • In many accents, -en routinely gives up its vowel syllable when given additional suffixes. For example, fatten /ˈfæt.n̩/ + -ing /-ɪŋ/ can be /ˈfæt.n̩.ɪŋ/ or /ˈfæt.nɪŋ/.
    • Even in many accents where this habitual syllable deletion is less usual, the syllable loss may still predominate for certain inflections that have become common words in their own right, such as gardener /ɡɑː(ɹ)d.nə(ɹ)/.
    • Syllable loss may be habitually prevented to avoid merging with more deeply entrenched inflections, such as for keeping the generic inflection lightening /ˈlaɪt.n̩.ɪŋ/ from being pronounced identically to the established term lightning /ˈlaɪt.nɪŋ/ (notice the e is no longer written), even if they both independently derived 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.n̩.ɪŋ/ or /ɛnˈlaɪt.nɪŋ/ because enlightning is not a common word outside of slang.

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English -n, -en, past participle ending of strong verbs (compare Middle English take(n), took, taken (“take, took, taken”)), from Old Norse -inn, past participle ending of strong verbs (compare Old Norse taka, tōk, takinn (“take, took, taken”)). From Proto-Norse *-īna- (*-īna-), from Proto-Germanic *-īnaz (compare Etymology 4, below). Replaced the native past participle ending of strong verbs (from Old English -en) in some words, which had 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.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Denotes the past participle form when attached to a verb.
    As in take, taken; forgive, forgiven; prove, proven
    The -en suffix is also used formally to denote any English past participle, even if it does not use the suffix.
    Such a use may be described formally as cook + -en → cooked
  2. Denotes a quasi-past participle or participle-like adjective when attached to a noun or verb.
    As in forken (“forked”)
Derived terms[edit]
past participle

Etymology 2[edit]

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”); hlǣfdige f (“lady”) + ‎-en → ‎hlǣfdigan (“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-)

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Can be used to denote the plural form of a small number of English words, the majority of whose etymology goes back to the n-stem (i.e. weak noun) declension of Germanic languages.
    Examples: aurochs, aurochsen[1]; bee, been; brother, brethren[1]; child, children[1]; cow, kine; knee, kneen; eye, eyen; hose, hosen; house, housen; ox, oxen[1]; shoe, shoon; sister, sistren; tree, treen
  2. (dialectal or nonstandard, rare) Used to form the plural of nouns
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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[edit]

Seldom productive, outside of occasional humorous use, particularly in computer hacker subculture. Notable examples are boxen, Unixen, VAXen.

Derived terms[edit]
plural

Etymology 3[edit]

from Middle English -(e)nen, -(e)nien, from Old English -nian, from Proto-Germanic *-inōną. Cognate with Danish -ne, Swedish -na, Icelandic -na.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. When attached to certain adjectives, it formed 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.
Examples

From adjectives: whiten, quicken
From nouns: strengthen, hasten
Usage notes[edit]
  • Currently not very productive; recent coinages such as embiggen are often humorous or nonce words.
Derived terms[edit]
English verbs suffixed with -en
attached to certain adjectives
suffix to nouns
Translations[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

From Middle English -en, from Old English -en, 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[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Suffix meaning "pertaining to", "having the qualities of", "resembling", "like".
    elf + ‎-en → ‎elfin
    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. 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: wood, wooden; gold, golden; brass, brazen
    Obsolete examples: bronze, bronzen; silver, silvern
    Orphan examples: linen (flax was called lin).
Derived terms[edit]
English adjectives suffixed with -en
attached to certain nouns

Etymology 5[edit]

From Middle English -en, from Old English -en, from the neuter form of -en4.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Used to form the diminutives of certain nouns.
    chicken
    maiden
    kitten

See also[edit]

Etymology 6[edit]

From Middle English -en, a blending of Old English infintives -an and -n, from Proto-Germanic *-aną.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. (obsolete) Used to form the infinitive of verbs.
  2. (obsolete) Used to form the plural present tense of verbs.
Usage notes[edit]
  • Having begun to fade by the 15th century, it was used in Early Modern English primarily to show archaic or rustic speech.
  • The weakening and loss of the marker caused some verbs to blend with verbs marked by Etymology 3; for example, Middle English learen (“to teach”) blended with learnen (“to learn”), which resulted in learn having a (dialectal) double meaning.

See also[edit]

English words suffixed with -en


References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language by David Crystal (1995, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521401798), page 200

Basque[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. used to form the superlative of adjectives
    handi (“big”) + ‎-en → ‎handien (“biggest”)
    zahar (“old”) + ‎-en → ‎zaharren (“oldest”)

Chuukese[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. of

Synonyms[edit]

Danish[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Forms the singular definite form of nouns of the common gender.
  2. Forms gerunds from verbs, these nouns being indeclinable and of the common gender.
  3. (organic chemistry) Identifies an alkene, these being of either the common or the neuter gender; -ene.
  4. (obsolete) Forms adverbs from adjectives

Derived terms[edit]

Danish words suffixed with -en


Usage notes[edit]

  • If the noun from which the singular definite is formed already ends in an unstressed schwa, this is not doubled: kage, kagen (but if the -e' is stressed, as schwa is appended normally: ske, skeen; allé, alléen). If it ends with a consonant and the last vowel is short, the last consonant is usually doubled in native and nativized words, if it is one of {k, l, m, n, p, s, t, }: hat, hatten. This is however not a reliable rule.
  • The current way of forming adverbs from adjectives is with -t.

Dutch[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Primarily from weak class 2, from Middle Dutch -en, from Old Dutch -on, from Proto-Germanic *-ōną, from Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti (denominative) and *-h₂ti (factitive).

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Forms verbs from nouns and adjectives. The stem of the word itself does not change.
Inflection[edit]

For verb stems ending in a voiced consonant:

Inflection of -en (weak)
infinitive -en
past singular -de
past participle ge- -d
infinitive -en
gerund -en n
verbal noun —
present tense past tense
1st person singular - -de
2nd person sing. (jij) -t -de
2nd person sing. (u) -t -de
2nd person sing. (gij) -t -de
3rd person singular -t -de
plural -en -den
subjunctive sing.1 -e -de
subjunctive plur.1 -en -den
imperative sing. -
imperative plur.1 -t
participles -end ge- -d
1) Archaic.

For verb stems ending in a voiceless consonant:

Inflection of -en (weak)
infinitive -en
past singular -te
past participle ge- -t
infinitive -en
gerund -en n
verbal noun —
present tense past tense
1st person singular - -te
2nd person sing. (jij) -t -te
2nd person sing. (u) -t -te
2nd person sing. (gij) -t -te
3rd person singular -t -te
plural -en -ten
subjunctive sing.1 -e -te
subjunctive plur.1 -en -ten
imperative sing. -
imperative plur.1 -t
participles -end ge- -t
1) Archaic.
Derived terms[edit]
Dutch words suffixed with -en (denominative)


Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle Dutch -ijn, -in, -en, from Old Dutch *-īn, from Proto-Germanic *-īnaz.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Forms adjectives that indicate the substance from which something is made.
Inflection[edit]
Inflection of -en
uninflected -en
inflected -en
comparative —
positive
predicative/adverbial —
indefinite m./f. sing. -en
n. sing. -en
plural -en
definite -en
partitive —
Derived terms[edit]
Dutch words suffixed with -en (substance)


Etymology 3[edit]

From Middle Dutch -en, a merger of various Old Dutch infinitive suffixes:

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Ending of the infinitive form of verbs.

Etymology 4[edit]

From Middle Dutch -en, from Old Dutch -an, from Proto-Germanic *-anaz, from Proto-Indo-European *-nós.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. The ending of the past participle of strong verbs. This can also function as an adjective.
Inflection[edit]
Inflection of -en
uninflected -en
inflected -en
comparative -ener
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial -en -ener het -enst
het -enste
indefinite m./f. sing. -en -ener -enste
n. sing. -en -ener -enste
plural -en -ener -enste
definite -en -ener -enste
partitive -ens -eners —

Etymology 5[edit]

From various case forms of the Germanic weak nominal inflection.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. The ending of the plural form of many nouns.
  2. Taken by adjectives used as nouns, to form the plural form of such nouns.
    groot + ‎-en → ‎de groten (“the great ones”)
  3. (archaic, not productive) The ending of a number of weak case endings of the adjective or the article.
    een + ‎-en → ‎ten enen male
  4. (archaic, not productive) The ending of the genitive case of certain nouns.
    de hertog + ‎-en → ‎des hertogen, a genitive preserved in 's-Hertogenbosch

Etymology 6[edit]

From various first- and third-person plural forms of Germanic verbs.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. The ending of the plural forms of verbs, in both present and past tense.

Etymology 7[edit]

From Old Dutch -ana, from Proto-Germanic *-anē.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. A suffix present on certain adverbs.
    voor + ‎-en → ‎van voren (“from the front”)

Finnish[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Suffix variant for the illative singular, see -Vn.
  2. Suffix for the genitive plural. Usually preceded by the plural marker -i- or -j-, but may also have a consonant separator d after the plural marker if the words would otherwise have 3 consecutive vowels.
  3. (personal) Forms the impersonal potential present forms of verbs, appended to the infinitive, followed by the potential mood marker -ne-.
    No changes in infinitives of verbs that end in one a/ä, except for consonant gradation in verbs ending with -da/-dä and the doubled t in verbs ending with a vowel and -ta/-tä. This -en is preceded by the mood marker -ne-.
    juosta + -ne- + -en → juostaneen
    nähdä + -ne- + -en → nähtäneen
    haluta + -ne- + -en → haluttaneen
    In verbs ending in -oa/-öä or -ua/-yä, the beginning stem is followed by -tta-/-ttä, the mood marker -ne- and then by this — consonant gradation occurs.
    sanoa, stem sano- + -tta- + -ne- + -en → sanottaneen
    kertoa, stem ker- + -to- → -ro- + -tta + -en → kerrottaneen
    huolestua, stem huolestu- + -tta- + -ne- + -en → huolestuttaneen
    saapua, stem saa- + -pu- → -vu- + -tta- + -ne- + -en → saavuttaneen
    säilöä, stem säilö- + -ttä- + -ne- + -en → säilöttäneen
    säilyä, stem säily- + -ttä- + -ne- + -en → säilyttäneen
    häipyä, stem häi- + -py- → -vy- + -ttä- + -ne- + -en → häivyttäneen
    In verbs ending in -aa/-ää or -ea/-eä, the beginning stem is followed by -etta-, the mood marker -ne- and then by this — consonant gradation occurs.
    paistaa, stem paist- + -etta- + -ne- + -en → paistettaneen
    laskea, stem lask- + -etta- + -ne- + -en → laskettaneen
    iskeä, stem isk- + -että- + -ne- + -en → iskettäneen
    laittaa, stem lait- (another t disappears) + -etta- + -ne- + -en → laitettaneen
    vaihtaa, stem vaih- + -t- → -d- + -etta- + -en- → vaihdettaneen
  4. (possessive) A variant for the third-person possessive suffixes -nsa and -nsä, see the usage notes below.

Usage notes[edit]

  • (third-person possessive suffix variant) When the third-person possessive suffix -nsa/-nsä is appended to nouns that are in singular and plural allative and translative and plural comitative, the S and A/Ä are very often omitted from the suffix and the last E of the case suffix preceding the remaining N is doubled — resulting in this -en. In standard Finnish, both the "full" form and the shortened form are acceptable. This same omission takes very often place also in the long first infinitives, used in a shortened sentence expressing "(in order) to do" (see the meanings of -nsa and -nsä):
Singular
(allat.) kirjallensa → kirjalleen
(trans.) kirjaksensa → kirjakseen
Plural
(allat.) kirjoillensa → kirjoilleen
(trans.) kirjoiksensa → kirjoikseen
(comit.) kirjoinensa → kirjoineen

German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle High German -en, a merger of various terminations in Old High German reflecting different conjugational patterns, namely -an, -ien, -on, -en, and -non, respectively from Proto-Germanic *-aną, *-janą, *-ōną, *-āną, and *-naną.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. A suffix of verbs in their infinitive form.
    1. Hence, a suffix applied to some words (such as nouns borrowed from other languages) to make them verbs.
      tweeten — to tweet via Twitter
      frienden — to friend (e.g. on Facebook)
  2. A suffix which is appended to some nouns to make them plural.
  3. A suffix (in fact, the most common declensional ending) which is appended to many nouns, adjectives and participles, for multiple grammatical cases, both singular and plural
  4. A suffix which is used to create adjectives that refer to materials
    Gold (“gold”, noun) + ‎-en → ‎golden (“gold, golden”, adjective).
See also[edit]
  • (plural suffix): -e, -er

Etymology 2[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. (chemistry) -ene (alkene suffix)

Derived terms[edit]

German words suffixed with -en
German verbs suffixed with -en
German adjectives suffixed with -en


Hungarian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. (adverbial suffix) Added to an adjective or numeral to create an adverb.
    szép (“beautiful”) → szépen (“beautifully”)
    hét (“seven”) → Heten mentünk moziba. - Seven of us went to the cinema.
    kettő (“two”) → Ketten vannak a szobában. - There are two people in the room.
  2. (case suffix) on. Used to form the superessive case.
    szék (“chair”) → széken (“on the chair”)
  3. (verb suffix) Added to a stem - often an onomatopoeias - to form a verb expressing an instantaneous action.
    reccsen (“to crackle, to make one cracking sound”)
    retten (“to recoil, to get afraid instantly”)

Usage notes[edit]

  • (adverbial suffix): See under -n
   Case suffix list
Case Back vowel
a, á, o, ó, u, ú		 Front vowel
unrounded
e, é, i, í		 rounded
ö, ő, ü, ű
nominative —
accusative -t
-ot / -at -et -öt
dative -nak -nek
instrumental -val -vel
causal-final -ért
translative -vá -vé
terminative -ig
essive-formal -ként
essive-modal -ul -ül
inessive -ban -ben
superessive -n
-on -en -ön
adessive -nál -nél
illative -ba -be
sublative -ra -re
allative -hoz -hez -höz
elative -ból -ből
delative -ról -ről
ablative -tól -től
Note for all endings:
Stem-final -a/-e changes to -á-/-é-, respectively, except -ként.
    alma - almában, but almaként
    zene - zenében, but zeneként
  • (case suffix) Harmonic variants:
    -n is added to words ending in a vowel. Final -a changes to -á-. Final -e changes to -é-.
    -on is added to back vowel words ending in a consonant
    -en is added to unrounded front vowel words ending in a consonant
    -ön is added to rounded front vowel words ending in a consonant
  • (verb suffix): See under -an

Derived terms[edit]

Hungarian adverbs suffixed with -en
Hungarian verbs suffixed with -en


See also[edit]

Japanese[edit]

Romanization[edit]

-en

  1. Rōmaji transcription of えん

Low German[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle Low German -inge, from Old Saxon -unga, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō. Cognate with Dutch -ing, Swedish -ning, German -ung, English -ing.

Pronunciation[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en f

  1. -ing; forms nouns from verbs (sometimes from other nouns), usually describing either an event in which an action is carried out, or the result of that action.
    bedüden (“to mean”) + ‎-en → ‎de Bedüden (“the meaning”)
    Huus (“house”) + ‎-en → ‎de Hüsen (“the dwelling”)

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from -en

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle Low German -en, a blending of Old Saxon infintives -an, -ian and -on, from Proto-Germanic *-aną.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Used to form the infinitive of verbs.

Luxembourgish[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Used for some nouns to form plural forms.

Usage notes[edit]

The suffix -en, like any ending that involves either -n or -nn, is subject to the Eifeler Regel. For example, Versioune weisen.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Used to show the infinitive form of verbs.

Middle Dutch[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

A merger of various infinitive suffixes:

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. The ending of the infinitive form of verbs, used as a suffix to form new verbs as well.
Descendants[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From the Old Dutch [Term?] strong past participle ending -an, from Proto-Germanic *-anaz.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. The ending of the past participle of strong verbs.
Descendants[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

From various first- and third-person plural forms of Germanic verbs.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. The ending of the first- and third-person plural forms of verbs.
Descendants[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

From Old Dutch *-īn, from Proto-Germanic *-īnaz.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Alternative form of -in

Old English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *-īną

Suffix[edit]

-en n

  1. (causes i-mutation) used to create diminutive neuter nouns
    mæġþ (“girl, woman”) + ‎-en → ‎mæġden (“little girl”)
    cocc (“cock, fowl”) + ‎-en → ‎cycen, cicen (“chick”)
Declension[edit]
Neuter
Declension of -en
Case Singular Plural
nominative -en -ennu
accusative -en -ennu
genitive -ennes/-enu -enna
dative -enne -ennum

Etymology 2[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *-njō, *-injō, *-unjō

Alternative forms[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en f

  1. (often causes i-mutation) used to create feminine nouns from other nouns
    god (“(male) god”) + ‎-en → ‎gyden (“goddess”) (with i-muation)
    þēow (“(male) servant”) + ‎-en → ‎þēowen (“female servant”) (without i-mutation)
Declension[edit]
Feminine
Declension of -en (strong ō-stem)
Case Singular Plural
nominative -en -enna, -enne
accusative -enne -enna, -enne
genitive -enne -enna
dative -enne -ennum

Etymology 3[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *-īnaz

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. (causes i-mutation) adjectival suffix meaning "material made of, consisting of"
    gold (“gold”) + ‎-en → ‎gylden (“golden”)
    ātor (“poison”) + ‎-en → ‎ǣtren (“venomous, poisonous”)

Etymology 4[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *-anaz

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. (verbal suffix) past participle ending of strong verbs
    ġecumen (“come”)
    ġecorfen (“carved”)

Etymology 5[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *-an-

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. (adjective suffix) meaning belonging to or characterised by
    tungol (“star”) + ‎-en → ‎tunglen (“of the stars, sidereal, starry”)
    fæder (“father”) + ‎-en → ‎fæderen (“paternal, of a father”)
    hund (“dog, hound”) + ‎-en → ‎hunden (“canine”)

Etymology 6[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *-īniz. Sometimes with geminate -nn-, probably due to confusion with the feminine suffix from *-injō.

Suffix[edit]

-en f

  1. (causes i-mutation) forms nouns from class 1 weak verbs
    byrgan (“to bury”) + ‎-en → ‎byrgen (“burying, grave”)
    sellan (“to give, grant”) + ‎-en → ‎selen (“giving, gift”)
    þicgan (“to take, accept”) + ‎-en → ‎þigen (“taking”) (inflected as strong and weak)

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin -ent and -unt

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Suffix indicating the third-person plural present indicative of -er and -ir verbs.
  2. Suffix indicating the third-person plural present subjunctive of -ar verbs.
  3. Suffix indicating the third-person plural imperative of -ar verbs.

See also[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Norse -inn, -in, from Proto-Germanic *jainaz, from Proto-Indo-European *i-.

Suffix[edit]

-en

  1. Suffix for definite form singular of many common gender nouns, in particular those which end in a consonant or a stressed -i; see also -n.
  2. Suffix for definite form plural of neuter nouns ending with consonant.
  3. Suffix for the past participle of verbs belonging to the fourth (strong) declension, e.g. stjäla + ‎-en → ‎stulen.
  4. Suffix which converts a few adjectives into adverbs.
    möjlig (“possible”) + ‎-en → ‎möjligen (“possibly”)

Welsh[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Brythonic *-enn.Schrijver, Peter C. H. (1995) Studies in British Celtic historical phonology (Leiden studies in Indo-European; 5), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, page 260

Pronunciation[edit]

Suffix[edit]

-en f (masculine -yn)

  1. Used to form feminine singulative forms of certain words; for the sake of example: cylion → cylionen.

References[edit]

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