en








noun

  1. the letter N, n.
  2. Also called nut. Printing. half of the width of an em.

adjective

  1. Printing. having the area of an en quad or the length of an en: en quad; en dash.

  1. a prefix occurring originally in loanwords from French and productive in English on this model, forming verbs with the general sense “to cause (a person or thing) to be in” the place, condition, or state named by the stem; more specifically, “to confine in or place on” (enshrine; enthrone; entomb); “to cause to be in” (enslave; entrust; enrich; encourage; endear); “to restrict” in the manner named by the stem, typically with the additional sense “on all sides, completely” (enwind; encircle; enclose; entwine). This prefix is also attached to verbs in order to make them transitive, or to give them a transitive marker if they are already transitive (enkindle; enliven; enshield; enface).

  1. a prefix meaning “within, in,” occurring in loanwords from Greek: energy; enthusiasm.

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

  1. a suffix used to form adjectives of source or material from nouns: ashen; golden; oaken.

  1. a suffix used to mark the past participle in many strong and some weak verbs: taken; proven.

  1. a suffix used in forming the plural of some nouns: brethren; children; oxen.

  1. a diminutive suffix: kitten; maiden.

noun

  1. printing a unit of measurement, half the width of an emAlso called: nut See also ennage

abbreviation for (in Britain)

  1. enrolled nurse
  2. English Nature

suffix forming verbs

  1. cause to be; become; cause to haveblacken; heighten

suffix forming adjectives

  1. of; made of; resemblingashen; earthen; wooden

prefix forming verbs and verbal derivatives

  1. (from nouns)
    1. put in or onentomb; enthrone
    2. go on or intoenplane
    3. surround or cover withenmesh
    4. furnish withempower
  2. (from adjectives and nouns) cause to be in a certain conditionenable; encourage; enrich; enslave

prefix forming verbs and verbal derivatives

  1. in; into; insideendemic
1

word-forming element making verbs (e.g. darken, weaken) from adjectives or from nouns, from Old English -nian, from Proto-Germanic *-inojan (cf. 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” (e.g. golden, oaken), corresponding to Latin -ine. Common in Old and Middle English, surviving words with it now are largely discarded in everyday use and the simple form of the noun serves as an adjective as well.

2

assimilated to -p-, -b-, -m-, -l-, -r-, word-forming element meaning “near, at in, on, within,” from Greek en “in,” cognate with Latin in (see in), and with en- (1).

1

assimilated to -p-, -b-, -m-, -l-, -r-, word-forming element meaning “in, into,” from French and Old French en-, from Latin in- “in, into” (see in- (2)).

Also used with native elements to form verbs from nouns and adjectives, “put in or on” (encircle), also “cause to be, make” (endear), and used as an intensive (enclose). Spelling variants in French that were brought over into Middle English account for parallels such as assure/ensure/insure.

pref.

  1. In; into; within:enzootic.
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