English

Suffix

-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

Etymology 2

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-)

Suffix

-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

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"

Etymology 3

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

Suffix

-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.

Usage notes

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

Derived terms

Etymology 4

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

• -in

Suffix

-en

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

   elfin, wolven, peachen, 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

Etymology 5

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

Suffix

-en

1. Used to form the diminutives of certain nouns.

   chicken

   maiden

   kitten

See also

• -ock
• -ling

Etymology 6

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

Suffix

-en

1. (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.
2. (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;

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.

See also

References

1. 1 2 3 4 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language by David Crystal (1995, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521401798), page 200

Basque

Suffix

-en

1. used to form the superlative of adjectives

   handien ‎(“biggest”), from handi ‎(“big”)

   zaharren ‎(“oldest”), from zahar ‎(“old”)

Chuukese

Suffix

-en

1. of

Synonyms

• -un

Danish

Suffix

-en

1. Forms the singular definite form of nouns of the common gender.
2. Forms verbal nouns from verbs, these nouns being of the common gender.
3. (chemistry) Identifies an alkene, these being of either the common or the neuter gender; -ene.

Derived terms

Usage notes

Regular nouns may also take an -n ending (if they already end in e) or double the final consonant (if the final syllable in the lemma is short). Irregular nouns may be inflected differently.

Dutch

Etymology 1

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

-en

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

Inflection

For verb stems ending in a voiced consonant:

For verb stems ending in a voiceless consonant:

Derived terms

Etymology 2

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

Suffix

-en

1. Forms adjectives that indicate the substance from which something is made.

Inflection

Derived terms

Etymology 3

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

• The strong infinitive -an, from Proto-Germanic *-aną.
• The weak class 1 infinitive -en, -ien, from Proto-Germanic *-janą, *-ijaną.
• The weak class 2 infinitive -on, from Proto-Germanic *-ōną.

Suffix

-en

1. Ending of the infinitive form of verbs.

Etymology 4

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

Suffix

-en

1. The ending of the past participle of strong verbs. This can also function as an adjective.

Inflection

Etymology 5

From various case forms of the Germanic weak nominal inflection.

Suffix

-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 — 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 — ten enen male

4. (archaic, not productive) The ending of the genitive case of certain nouns.

   de hertog — des hertogen, a genitive preserved in 's-Hertogenbosch

Etymology 6

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

Suffix

-en

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

Etymology 7

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

Suffix

-en

1. A suffix present on certain adverbs.

   voor — van voren (from the front)

Finnish

Suffix

-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

• (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):

German

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ən/

Suffix

-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 and adjectives, for multiple grammatical cases, both singular and plural; a declensional suffix for present participles (e.g. Auszubildender m (male) "apprentice", Auszubildende f, (female) "apprentice" or past participles (e.g. Verbündeter m, (male) "ally", Verbündete f, (female) "ally").
4. A suffix which is used to create adjectives that refer to materials (e.g. golden "gold, golden"), made of Gold.
5. (chemistry) -ene (alkene suffix)

Derived terms

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɛn]

Suffix

-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

• (adverbial suffix): See under -n

• (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

See also

• Category:Hungarian words taking -n/-on/-en/-ön
• Category:Hungarian noun forms
• Appendix:Hungarian suffixes

Japanese

Romanization

-en

1. rōmaji reading of えん

Low German

Etymology 1

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

• IPA^(key): /ən/

Suffix

-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 → de Bedüden‎

   to mean → the meaning

   Huus → de Hüsen‎

   house → the dwelling

Derived terms

Etymology 2

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

Suffix

-en

1. Used to form the infinitive of verbs.

Luxembourgish

Suffix

-en

1. Used for some nouns to form plural forms.

Usage notes

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

Suffix

-en

1. Used to show the infinitive form of verbs.

Middle Dutch

Etymology 1

A merger of various infinitive suffixes:

• The strong infinitive Old Dutch -an, from Proto-Germanic *-aną.
• The weak class 1 infinitive Old Dutch -en, -ien, from Proto-Germanic *-janą, *-ijaną.
• The weak class 2 infinitive Old Dutch -on, from Proto-Germanic *-ōną.

Suffix

-en

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

Etymology 2

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

Suffix

-en

1. The ending of the past participle of strong verbs.

Etymology 3

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

Suffix

-en

1. The ending of the first- and third-person plural forms of verbs.

Etymology 4

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

Suffix

-en

1. Alternative form of -in

Old English

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *-īną

Suffix

-en n

1. (causes i-mutation) used to create diminutive neuter nouns

   mæġden ‎(“little girl”), from mæġþ ‎(“girl, woman”)

   cycen, cicen ‎(“chick”), from cocc ‎(“cock, fowl”)

Declension

Neuter

Etymology 2

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

Alternative forms

• -in

Suffix

-en f

1. (often causes i-mutation) used to create feminine nouns from other nouns

   gyden ‎(“goddess”), from god ‎(“(male) god”) (with i-muation)

   þēowen ‎(“female servant”), from þēow ‎(“(male) servant”) (without i-mutation)

Declension

Feminine

Etymology 3

From Proto-Germanic *-īnaz

Suffix

-en

1. (causes i-mutation) adjectival suffix meaning "material made of, consisting of"

   gylden ‎(“golden”), from gold "gold"

   ǣtren ‎(“venomous, poisonous”), from ātor ‎(“poison”)

Etymology 4

From Proto-Germanic *-anaz

Suffix

-en

1. (verbal suffix) past participle ending of strong verbs

   ġecumen ‎(“come”)

   ġecorfen ‎(“carved”)

Etymology 5

From Proto-Germanic *-an-

Suffix

-en

1. (adjective suffix) meaning belonging to or characterised by

   tunglen ‎(“of the stars, sidereal, starry”), from tungol ‎(“star”)

   fæderen ‎(“paternal, of a father”), from fæder ‎(“fathe”)

   hunden ‎(“canine”), from hund ‎(“dog, hound”)

Etymology 6

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

Suffix

-en f

1. (causes i-mutation) forms nouns from class 1 weak verbs

   byrgen ‎(“burying, grave”), from byrgan ‎(“to bury”)

   selen ‎(“giving, gift”), from sellan ‎(“to give, grant”)

   þigen ‎(“taking”), from þicgan ‎(“to take, accept”) (inflected as strong and weak)

Spanish

Etymology

Latin -ent and -unt

Suffix

-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

• -an

Swedish

Etymology

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

Suffix

-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 – stulen.
4. Suffix which converts a few adjectives into adverbs.

   möjlig (possible) → möjligen (possibly)

Welsh

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *-enn.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /en/

Suffix

-en f ‎(masculine -yn)

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

References

1. ↑
   • Peter Schrijver, Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1995, page 260