-en 1
suff.（后缀）

To cause to be:
使变成：
cheapen.
使…便宜
To become:
变成：
redden.
变红

To cause to have:
使…有：
hearten.
鼓励
To come to have:
使成为：
lengthen.
变长

语源

Middle English -enen, -nen
中古英语 -enen, -nen
from Old English -nian
源自古英语 -nian

-en 2
suff.（后缀）

Made of; resembling:
由…构成；相似：
earthen.
土制

语源

Middle English
中古英语
from Old English
源自古英语

-en¹

suffix forming verbs

cause to be; become; cause to have

⇒ blacken

⇒ heighten

Origin

Old English -n-, as in fæst-n-ian to fasten, of common Germanic origin; compare Icelandic fastna

-en²

suffix forming adjectives

of; made of; resembling

⇒ ashen

⇒ earthen

⇒ wooden

Origin

Old English -en; related to Gothic -eins, Latin -īnus -ine¹

-en¹

Word Origin

1

a suffix formerly used to form transitive and intransitive verbs from adjectives (fasten; harden; sweeten), or from nouns (heighten; lengthen; strengthen).

Origin

Middle English, Old English -n- (as in Middle English fast-n-en, Old English fǣst-n-ian to make fast, fasten); cognate with -n- of like verbs in other Gmc languages (Old Norse fastna)

-en²

1

a suffix used to form adjectives of source or material from nouns:

ashen; golden; oaken.

Origin

Middle English, Old English; cognate with Old High German -īn, Gothic -eins, Latin -īnus; see -ine¹

-en³

1

a suffix used to mark the past participle in many strong and some weak verbs:

taken; proven.

Origin

Middle English, Old English; cognate with German -en, Old Norse -inn

-en⁴

1

a suffix used in forming the plural of some nouns:

brethren; children; oxen.

Origin

Middle English; Old English -an, case ending of n-stem nouns, as in naman oblique singular, and nominative and accusative plural of nama name; akin to n-stem forms in other IE languages, as in Latin nōmen, nōmin- name

-en⁵

1

a diminutive suffix:

kitten; maiden.

Origin

Middle English, Old English, from neuter of -en²

-enI.

a suffix, forming transitive and intransitive verbs from adjectives, as in fasten, harden, sweeten, or from nouns, as in heighten, lengthen, strengthen.

[abstracted from old verbs like fasten (contrast listen, where -en has kept its non-morphemic character)]

II.

a suffix of adjectives indicating material or appearance, as in ashen, golden, oaken.

[Middle English, Old English]

III.

a suffix used to mark the past participle in many strong and some weak verbs, as in taken, proven.

[Middle English, Old English]

IV.

a suffix forming the plural of some nouns, as in brethren, children, oxen, and other words, now mostly archaic, as eyen, hosen.

[Middle English; Old English -an, case ending of weak nouns, as in oxan, oblique singular and nominative and accusative plural of oxa ox]

V.

a diminutive suffix, as in maiden, kitten.

[Middle English, Old English]

-en

I

adjective suffix
also -n

ETYMOLOGY Middle English, from Old English; akin to Old High German -īn made of, Latin -īnus of or belonging to, Greek -inos made of, of or belonging to

: made of : consisting of
earthen
leathern

II

verb suffix

ETYMOLOGY Middle English -nen, from Old English -nian; akin to Old High German -inōn -en

1.
  a. cause to be
      sharpen
  b. cause to have
      lengthen
2.
  a. come to be
      steepen
  b. come to have
      lengthen

-en⁴

/en/

suffix

forming the plural of a few nouns such as children, oxen ［构成某些名词的复数, 如 children, oxen］。

词源

Middle English reduction of the earlier suffix -an.

-en⁵

/en/

suffix

forming diminutives of nouns (such as chicken, maiden ) ［附在名词后构成指小词, 如 chicken, maiden］。

词源

Old English, of Germanic origin.

-en²

/en/

suffix

（亦作 -n） forming adjectives from nouns ［加在名词之后构成形容词］

1.

made or consisting of 表示“由…制成”; “由…构成”：: earthen

woollen.

2.

resembling 表示“与…相似的”：: golden

silvern.

词源

Old English, of Germanic origin.

-en⁶

/en/

suffix

1.

forming feminine nouns such as vixen ［构成阴性名词, 如 vixen］。

2.

forming abstract nouns such as burden ［构成抽象名词, 如 burden］。

词源

Old English, of Germanic origin.

-en¹

/en/

suffix

forming verbs ［构成动词］

1.

(from adjectives) denoting the development, creation, or intensification of a state ［加在形容词之后］表示“发展”、“创造”或“状态的加剧”：: widen

deepen

loosen.

2.

from nouns (such as strengthen from strength ) ［加在名词之后, 如由 strength 构成 strengthen］。

词源

Old English -nian, of Germanic origin.

-en³

/en/

（亦作 -n）

suffix

forming past participles of strong verbs ［构成强变格动词的过去分词］

1.

as a regular inflection ［作为规则的屈折成分］：: spoken.

2.

as an adjective ［作为形容词］：: mistaken

torn.

■ often with a restricted adjectival sense ［常带有限制性形容词的意思］：: drunken.

词源

Old English, of Germanic origin.

▪ I.-en, suffix¹:—OTeut. -îno(m, formally the neut. of -îno-, -en⁴, is used to form diminutives from ns. (esp. names of animals), as in chicken n.¹, kitten, maiden, ME. ticchen kid; also in ME. stucchen small piece.▪ II.-en, suffix²:—WGer. -innja, repr. OTeut. -inî, occurs in several OE. fem. ns., a few of which have survived into mod. Eng.1. It is used to form feminines from ns. denoting male persons or animals, as in OE. gyden goddess (f. god), mynecen nun (f. munuc monk), wylfen she-wolf (f. wulf wolf). The only surviving instance of this use is vixen female fox. 2. It is added in a few instances to the stem of a vb. or to that of a verbal-abstract n., as in burden n., burian, OE. rǽden condition.▪ III.-en, suffix³the form assumed in ME. by the OE. -an, the termination of the nom., accus., and dat. plural of ns. of the weak declension, as in oxa masc., ox, pl. oxan; tunge fem., tongue, pl. tungan; éare neut., ear, pl. éaran. In origin the suffix belonged to the stem; but as in OE. the nom. sing. of these ns. ended in -a, -e (levelled in ME. to -e), while the OE. -an of the oblique cases sing. became -e in ME., the termination -en came to be regarded as a formative of the plural, and its use was extended in southern ME. to many other words of OE. and Fr. origin. It was also added to the remains of other old plurals, as brether, childer (OE. cildru), ky (OE. cý), whence the modern brethren, children, kine. Apart from these the sole surviving representative (in standard Eng.) of this inflexion is ox-en; but hos-en (OE. hosan) continued in use until 17th c. In southern and south midland dialects the plurals in -en are still of frequent occurrence.▪ IV.-en, suffix⁴(reduced to -n after r in unstressed syllables), corresponds to OS. -in, OHG. -în (Ger. -en), ON. -in, Goth. -eina-:—OTeut -īno-, = Gr. -ῑνο-, L. -īno- (see -ine), added to noun-stems to form adjs. with sense ‘pertaining to, of the nature of’. In Teut. the adjs. so formed chiefly indicate the material of which a thing is composed. Of the many words of this formation which existed in OE. scarcely any survive in mod. use; but the suffix was extensively applied in ME. to form new derivatives. Some of these took the place of OE. words, from which they formally differ only by the absence of umlaut; compare OE. gylden with mod.Eng. golden, OE. stǽnen (early ME. stenen) with ME. and dial. stonen, made of stone. From 16th c. onwards there has been in literary English a growing tendency to discard these adjs. for the attrib. use of the n., as in ‘a gold watch’; hence many of them have become wholly obs., and others (as golden, silvern) are seldom used except metaphorically, or with rhetorical emphasis. It is only in a few cases (e.g. wooden, woollen, earthen, wheaten) that these words are still familiarly used in their lit. sense. In s.w. dialects, however, the suffix is of common occurrence, being added without restriction to all ns. denoting the material of which anything is composed, as in glassen, steelen, tinnen, papern, etc.▪ V.-en, suffix⁵forming verbs.1. from adjs., as darken, deepen, harden, madden, moisten, widen. Most of the words of this type seem to have been formed in late ME. or early mod.Eng., on the analogy of a few verbs which came down from OE. or were adopted from ON.; e.g. fasten:—OE. fæstnian; ? brighten:—ONorthumb. berhtnia; harden:—ON. harðna. In Teut. there are two classes of vbs. formed upon the ‘weak’ or lengthened stems of adjs. (suffix -on-): (a) the intransitive (or in sense pass.) vbs. which in Goth. make the inf. in -nan, and the pa. tense in -ôda; e.g. fullnan to be filled, f. fullan- full; gabignan to be rich, f. gabigan- rich; managnan to abound, f. managan- many; (b) the originally trans. vbs. in OTeut. (i)nôjan, e.g. OHG. festinôn to fasten, f. feston- (:—fastjon-) fast. In Eng. these two classes of vbs. can scarcely be discriminated with precision, but in most cases the intr. sense (as in deepen = ‘become deeper’) appears to be derived from the trans. sense (as in deepen = ‘make deeper’).2. from ns. In OTeut. ns. both of the weak and the strong declension gave rise to intr. verbs in -(i)nôjan, and this formation is represented by a few examples in OE., such as hlystnian to listen. In 14th c. some additional vbs. occur, formed app. on the analogy of these, as happen, threaten. The majority of Eng. words f. n. + -en, however, such as heighten, lengthen, strengthen, hearten, barken, appear first in mod.Eng., and seem to be due to the analogy of the verbs f. adjs.3. In one or two cases (e.g. waken) the suffix -en represents OTeut. -na-, the formative of the present stem in certain strong verbs.▪ VI.-en, suffix⁶the ending of the past participle of many strong verbs, as broken, spoken, sunken. OE. -en, corresp. to OFris, -en, OS. -an, (M)Du. -en, OHG. -an (MHG., G. -en), ON. -enn, -inn (Sw. -en), Goth. -ans:—prim. Germ. -inaz, -anaz (Indo-Eur. -énos, -ónos), of which some languages generalized one and some the other, the first type being represented by mutated forms in OE., eg. cymen (:—*kuminaz), pa. pple. of cuman to come, beside cumen (:—*kumanaz-).

-en

1

word-forming element making verbs (such as darken, weaken) from adjectives or nouns, from Old English -nian, from Proto-Germanic *-inojan (also source of Old Norse -na), from PIE adjectival suffix *-no-. Most active in Middle English.

2

suffix added to nouns to produce adjectives meaning "made of, of the nature of" (such as golden, oaken, woolen), corresponding to Latin -anus, -inus, Greek -inos; from Proto-Germanic *-ina-, from PIE *-no-, adjectival suffix. Common in Old and Middle English (e.g. fyren "on fire; made of fire"), the few surviving uses are largely discarded in everyday use, and the simple form of the noun doubles as adjective (gold ring, wool sweater). Some are used in special contexts (brazen, wooden).

-en

1. [Verb] to cause to become:

lengthen, moisten, sharpen

2. [Adjective] material:

golden, woolen, silken

1
-en /ɪn, (ə)n/ suffix¹ (not productive). OE.

ORIGIN: Old English from Germanic neut. of base of -en⁴.

Forming dims. of nouns, as chicken, maiden.

2
-en /(ə)n/ suffix² (not productive). OE.

ORIGIN: Old English from Germanic.

Forming fem. nouns, as vixen, and abstract nouns, as burden.

3
-en /(ə)n/ suffix³ (not productive). OE.

ORIGIN: Old English -an, orig. part of the stem of weak nouns.

The termination of the pl. of weak nouns, surviving in oxen; later forming pl. nouns, as kine, esp. added to other pls., as in brethren, children.

4
-en /(ə)n/ suffix⁴ (not productive). After r in unstressed syllables -n. OE.

ORIGIN: Old English from Germanic, = Greek -inos, Latin -inus -ine¹, -ine².

Forming adjectives from nouns, with senses ‘pertaining to, of the nature of, (esp.) made of', as earthen, wheaten, wooden, woollen. In other words now chiefly arch., as silvern, or metaphorical, as golden, having been superseded in general by attrib. use of the noun.

5
-en /(ə)n/ suffix⁵ (rarely productive). OE.

ORIGIN: Old English -nian from Germanic. Most words are later and on the analogy of Old English verbs.

1.Forming verbs with the sense ‘make or become’, from adjectives, as deepen, fasten, moisten, or from nouns, as listen, (later, on the analogy of verbs from adjectives) happen, hearten, strengthen.

2.Occas. repr. Germanic formative of pres. stem in some strong verbs, as in waken.

6
-en /(ə)n/ suffix⁶ (not productive). After r & (arch.) -l -n. OE.

ORIGIN: Old English -en = Old Saxon, Old High German -an, Old Norse -inn, -enn, Gothic -ans, from Germanic.

Forming the pa. pple of strong verbs, also ppl adjectives from such pples (senses as for those in -ed¹), as mistaken, torn, outspoken, freq. now in restricted use, as bounden, cloven, drunken, gotten, proven. Cf. -ed¹.

☞ en

-en
I. \_ən, ^ən sometimes ^əm after p, b, f, or v sometimes ^əŋ after k or g\ adjective suffix
also -n \noun\
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English; akin to Old High German -īn made of, Old Norse -inn, Gothic -eins made of, of or belonging to, Latin -inus (with long ī) of or belonging to, Greek -inos made of, of or belonging to, Sanskrit -īna of or belonging to
: made of : consisting of
< earthen >
< woolen >
— now relatively infrequent because of the widespread attributive use of nouns or of adjectives formed from nouns without the addition of a suffix (as in gold cup, wheat cake) and to be found chiefly in adjectives which are obsolete
< tinnen >
or archaic
< oaken >
or in which a sense other than the literal one has become prominent
< golden >
< wooden >
— usually -n after -er
< silvern >
II. verb suffix
(-ed/-ing/-s)
Etymology: Middle English -nen, from Old English -nian (as in fæstnian to fasten); akin to Old Saxon -nōn, final segment of certain transitive infinitives (as in fastnōn to fasten), Old High German -inōn (as in festinōn to fasten), Old Norse -na (as in fastna to pledge, betroth)
1.
a. : cause to be
  < sharpen >
— sometimes in verbs that also have the prefix en-
  < embolden >
— in transitive verbs formed from adjectives
b. : cause to have
  < lengthen >
— in transitive verbs formed from nouns
2.
a. : come to be
  < steepen >
— in intransitive verbs formed from adjectives
b. : come to have
  < lengthen >
— in intransitive verbs formed from nouns

-en¹

(usually) IPA: /ən/

(after /t/, /d/ also) IPA: /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.

Suffix

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

As in forken ("forked")

Etymology

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").

Derived terms

awoken

been

boughten

broken

chosen

fallen

forgiven

forgotten

forsaken

given

gotten

mistaken

rotten

seen

shaken

stolen

taken

woken up

-en²

Suffix

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, swine
dialectal or nonstandard, rare Used to form the plural of nouns
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.

Etymology

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: naman (masc.) "name: names"; hlǣfdige: hlǣfdigan (fem.) "lady: ladies"; ēare: ēaran (neut.) "ear: ears". Assisted by M.E. 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-)

Usage notes

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

Derived terms

See also: Category:English plurals ending in "-en"

aurochsen

brethren

children

eyen

kine

oxen

shoon

sistren

-en³

Suffix

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

Etymology

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

Usage notes

Currently not very productive; recent coinages such as embiggen are often humorous or nonce words.

Derived terms

English verbs suffixed with -en

attached to certain adjectives

awaken

blacken

bolden

brighten

broaden

dampen

darken

deaden

deafen

deepen

dullen

fasten

fatten

flatten

freshen

gladden

harden

lessen

lighten

liven

loosen

madden

moisten

quicken

quieten

redden

ripen

sadden

sharpen

shorten

sicken

soften

stiffen

stouten

straighten

sweeten

thicken

tighten

toughen

weaken

whiten

widen

worsen

suffix to nouns

christen

hasten

hearten

heighten

lengthen

strengthen

-en⁴
-in

Suffix

Suffix meaning "pertaining to", "having the qualities of", "resembling", "like".

elfin, wolven, peachen, goaten
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).

Etymology

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.

Derived terms

English adjectives suffixed with -en

ashen (referring to the wood of the tree)

brazen

bronzen

golden

leaden

leathern

linen

oaken

silken

silvern

slaten

strawen

wooden

woolen or woollen

-en⁵

Suffix

Used to form the diminutives of certain nouns.

chicken

maiden

kitten

Etymology

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

-en⁶

Suffix

obsolete Used to form the infinitive of verbs.
1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III:
The Sonne compell'd, beene Butcher to the Sire...
1599, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:
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. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, II
From others' labours; for though he strive

To killen bad, keep good alive;
1844, William Barnes, “Bringen Wonne Gwäin O' Zundays”, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect.
obsolete Used to form the plural present tense of verbs.
1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender
And when the shining sunne laugheth once,

You deemen the spring is come attonce.

Tho gynne you, fond flyes, the cold to scorne,

And, crowing in pypes made of greene corne,

You thinken to be lords of the yeare.
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book I, Canto IV:
So forth they marchen in this goodly sort,

To take the solace of the open aire,
c. 1590-97, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,

And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear

A merrier hour was never wasted there.
c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, II
All perishen of man, of pelf,

Ne aught escapen but himself;

Etymology

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

Usage notes

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.

References

↑ ^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

后缀：-en ①[动词后缀]

表示做、使成为...、使变成...

shorten 使缩短

gladden 使快活

harden 使变硬

flatten 使变平

strengthen 加强

moisten 弄湿，使湿

deepen 加深，使深

sharpen 削尖

rechen 使富

quicken 加快

darken 使黑，变黑

youthen 变年轻

heighten 加高，提高

fatten 使肥

lengthen 使延长，伸长

straighten 弄直，使直

broaden 加宽

sweeten 使变甜

thicken 使变厚

soften 弄软，使软化

②[形容词后缀]

表示由...制成的，含有...质的，似...的

wooden 木制的

leaden 铅制的

woolen 羊毛制的

golden 金质的，似金的

silken 丝的，如丝的

wheaten 小麦制的

earthen 泥质的，泥制的

waxen 蜡制的，似蜡的

ashen 灰的，似灰的

oaken 橡树制的

③[名词后缀]

1、表示人

warden 看守人

citizen 公民

vixen 刁妇，泼妇

denizen 居民

2、表示小称

maiden 少女

chicken 小鸡

kitten 小猫

-en1

suffix forming verbs

Origin

-en2

suffix forming adjectives

Origin

-en1

-en2

-en3

-en4

-en5

-en 1

Suffix

Etymology

Derived terms

-en 2

Suffix

Etymology

Usage notes

Derived terms

-en 3

Suffix

Etymology

Usage notes

Derived terms

-en 4-in

Suffix

Etymology

Derived terms

-en 5

Suffix

Etymology

See also

-en 6

Suffix

Etymology

Usage notes

See also

References

后缀：-en ①[动词后缀]

-en¹

-en²

-en¹

-en²

-en³

-en⁴

-en⁵

-en¹

-en²

-en³

-en⁴
-in

-en⁵

-en⁶