The Universe of Discourse


Mon, 19 Mar 2018

English's -en suffix

In English we can sometimes turn an adjective into a verb by suffixing “-en”. For example:

black → blacken
red → redden
white → whiten
wide → widen

But not

blue → bluen*
green → greenen*
yellow → yellowen*
long → longen*

(Note that I am only looking at -en verbs that are adjective-derived present tenses. This post is not concerned with the many -en verbs that are past participles, such as “smitten” (past participle of “smite”), “spoken” (“speak”), “molten” (“melt”), “sodden” (“seethe”), etc.)

I asked some linguist about this once and they were sure it was purely morphological, something like: black, red, and white end in stop consonants, and blue, green, and yellow don't.

Well, let's see:

MorphologyGoodBad
Stop Blacken
Brighten
Broaden
Cheapen
Darken
Deaden
Embolden
Fatten
Flatten
Gladden
Golden
Harden
Hearten
Heighten
Louden
Madden
Open (?)
Quicken
Quieten
Redden
Ripen
Sadden
Sharpen
Shorten
Sicken
Slacken
Smarten
Straighten
Straiten
Sweeten
Thicken
Tighten
Weaken
Whiten
Widen
Biggen
Fricative Coarsen
Deafen
Enlargen
Enliven
Fasten
Freshen
Hasten
Leaven
Lengthen
Lessen
Loosen
Moisten
Roughen
Soften
Stiffen
Strengthen
Toughen
Worsen
Largen
Smoothen
Nasal   Cleanen
Dimmen
Dumben
Finen
Greenen
Longen
Slimmen
Strongen
Thinnen
Vowel   Angrien
Bluen
Dirtien
Dryen
Grayen
Highen
Lowen
Narrowen
Noisien
Saltien
Slowen
Yellowen
Nasalized
stop
Dampen
Pinken
Blunten
Glide   Betteren
Bitteren
Dullen
Faren
Greateren
Moren
Nearen
Smallen
Souren
Stalen

There are some fine points:

  • “Biggen” used to exist but has fallen out of use
  • Perhaps I should have ommitted “strengthen” and “hasten”, which are derived from nouns, not from adjectives
  • I'm not sure whether “closen”, “hotten” and “wetten” are good or bad so I left them off
  • “moisten” and “soften” might belong with the stops instead of the fricatives
  • etc.

but clearly the morphological explanation wins. I'm convinced.

[ Addendum: Wiktionary discusses this suffix, distinguishing it from the etymologically distinct participial “-en”, and says “it is not currently very productive in forming new words, being mostly restricted to monosyllabic bases which end in an obstruent”. ]


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