-en3 Also -n.
Forming past participles of strong verbs.
[Old English, of Germanic origin.]
Strong verbs indicate their past tenses by a change of vowel within the stem (as sing has past tense sang and past participle sung). Some of them mark their past participles by adding -en. Examples include broken, chosen, frozen, spoken, stolen, sunken, taken, and woven. American English retains gotten as the past participle of get. A number have lost the e from the ending following a final r in the stem: born, shorn, sworn. These forms can be used as adjectives, as can some whose participial use is now rare or archaic, such as proven and drunken; however, the second of these has the restricted sense of having drunk too much alcohol.
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