enliven

English

Etymology

From en- +‎ life +‎ -en (intensifying verbal circumfix).[1]

Pronunciation

Verb

enliven (third-person singular simple present enlivens, present participle enlivening, simple past and past participle enlivened)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To give life or spirit to; to revive or animate.
  2. (transitive) To make more lively, cheerful or interesting.
    The game was much enlivened when both teams scored within five minutes of each other.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References
  1. The Oxford English Dictionary (2007) states that enliven was formed by the simultaneous prefixing of en- and suffixing of -en, which, by definition, constitutes circumfixation.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.