hen

• IPA^(key): /hɛn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛn

A mother hen with chicks.

From Middle English hen, from Old English henn (“hen”), from Proto-Germanic *hanjō (“hen”), from Proto-Indo-European *kan-, *kana- (“to sing”). Cognate with Dutch hen (“hen”), West Frisian hin (“hen”), German Low German Heen (“hen”), German Henne (“hen”), Icelandic hæna (“hen”), Danish høne (“hen”), Swedish höna (“hen”). Related also to Old English hana (“cock, rooster”).

• henne (obsolete)

hen (plural hens)

1. A female chicken (Gallus gallus), particularly a sexually mature one kept for its eggs.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎:

     She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

2. A female of other bird species, particularly a sexually mature female fowl.
3. (uncommon) A female fish or crustacean.
4. (figuratively, depreciatory) A woman, particularly
   • 1785, Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:

     Hen, a woman. A cock and hen club; a club composed of men and women.

   1. (Britain, informal) A bride-to-be, particularly in the context of her "hen night" festivities.
5. (Britain, informal) A hen night.
6. (Scotland, informal) An affectionate term of address used to women or girls.

   Don't cry, hen. Everything will be all right.

7. (figuratively, derogatory, uncommon) A henlike person of either sex.
8. The hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), a bivalve shellfish.

• (female bird): hen-bird
• (bride-to-be): (US) bachelorette
• (M. mercenaria): hard clam, hen-clam, hen-fish

• (male chicken or other bird): cock

hen (third-person singular simple present hens, present participle henning, simple past and past participle henned)

1. Alternative form of mother-hen
   • 1943, McCall's - Volume 71, page 69:

     Once he had flared up, "If ever a man was henned, it's me!"

   • 1984, Susan C. Feldhake, Love Beyond Surrender, page 52:

     Mammy henned the black workers into placing the trunks beside the girls.

• broody

From Middle English henne, heonne, hinne, from earlier henene, heonenen, henen, from Old English heonan, hionan, heonane, heonone (“hence, from here, away, from how”), from Proto-Germanic *hina, *hinanō (“from here”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”). Cognate with Dutch heen (“away”), German hin (“hence, from here”), Danish hen (“away, further, on”). See also hence.

hen (not comparable)

1. (dialectal) Hence.

From hen (“hence, away”), or a variant of hench.

hen (third-person singular simple present hens, present participle henning, simple past and past participle henned)

1. (dialectal) To throw.

• NHE, Neh.

From Proto-Brythonic *hen, from Proto-Celtic *senos, from Proto-Indo-European *sénos.

hen

1. old, ancient

• haban, håm

hen

1. (Thirteen Communities) to have

• “hen” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

hen

1. Used with a verb, indicating a movement towards or to something.

   Gå hen til din far.

   Go to your father.

   Hestene går hen imod mig.

   The horses are walking towards me.

Contrast with henne; where hen indicates movement, henne indicates position. Thus hvor løber han henne? means "where is he running?", whereas hvor løber han hen? means "to where is he running?".

• Rhymes: -ɛn
• IPA^(key): /ɦɛn/

From Old Dutch hin, from Proto-Germanic *himaz.

hen (personal)

1. them

• hun

From Middle Dutch henne, from Old Dutch *henna, from Proto-Germanic *hanjō, from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- (“to sing”).

hen f (plural hennen, diminutive hennetje n)

1. hen, female chicken; female of a related species.
2. A female of the species of birds brooding on the ground.
3. (figuratively) 'bird', colloquial term for a human female

• (female chicken) kip, kieken
• (brooding bird) kloek
• (female human; informal) kippetje, duifje

• haan m (rooster)
• hoen, hoender n (fowl)

hen

1. Genitive singular form of he.

hen

1. Rōmaji transcription of へん

hen

1. Nonstandard spelling of hēn.
2. Nonstandard spelling of hén.
3. Nonstandard spelling of hěn.
4. Nonstandard spelling of hèn.

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

• henne, hene, han, en, heene

From Old English hen, from Proto-Germanic *hanjō.

• IPA^(key): /hɛn/
• Rhymes: -ɛn

hen (plural hennes or hennen, genitive hennes or henne)

1. hen, chicken
2. female bird

• English: hen
• Scots: hen
• Yola: hen

• “hen (n.(1))” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-03.

hen (uncountable)

1. Term of address for a woman.

   Alright Mary hen?

Created as an alternative to hon (“she”) and han (“he”). The coining of the word has probably been influenced by the Finnish hän, a personal pronoun used about human beings and which does not specify gender (Finnish lacks grammatical gender entirely). Hen was suggested as early as 1966 in Swedish regional newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning and was proposed again in a 1994 article by linguist Hans Karlgren, but did not receive widespread attention until around 2010.[1]

• IPA^(key): /hɛn/

• Audio (Central Standard Swedish)

  (file)

hen (third person singular gender-neutral personal pronoun, objective hen or henom, possessive hens)

1. (neologism) A third-person singular pronoun of unspecified gender; they, thon; alternative to hon (“she”) and han (“he”).

   Det är viktigt att hen får bestämma hur vi ska tilltala henom.

   It is important that they decide how we should address them.

   • 2011, Anders Lokko, Svenska Dagbladet, "Jag vet hur fruktansvärt ont det gör"

     Alla skilsmässor och separationer är olika. Men i nästan samtliga är det i slutändan någon som blir lämnad och någon som lämnar. Ingen av de rollerna är enkel. Fast det är när den som lämnar gör det för att hen har träffat någon annan [...]

     All divorces and separations are different. But in almost all cases, someone is left behind or someone leaves. None of those roles are easy. However, it's when the one who does leaves because they have met someone else [...]

   • 2011, Lotten Wiklund, Dagens Nyheter, "Jag vill vara hen - inte hon eller han"

     I efterhand har hen förstått att det förmodligen har att göra med att hen aldrig riktigt accepterat att det bara skulle finnas två kön.

     In hindsight, they have come to understand that it probably has to do with the fact that they have never accepted that there are just two genders.

   • 2012, Jesper Lundqvist, Kivi och Monsterhund:

     ska hen få en hund, kan de halvt säkert lova

   • 2013, Lova Olsson, Svenska Dagbladet, "Arnholm lanserar 'hen' i riksdagen"

     - Målet är att varje individ ska få det stöd hen behöver för att så snabbt som möjligt lära sig svenska, komma i arbete och klara sin egen försörjning, sade den nyblivna jämställdhetsministern.

     - The goal is to make sure that every individual should receive the support they need to learn Swedish, start working and manage to support themselves as soon as possible, said the newly appointed Minister of Gender Equality.

   • 2013, Ann-Marie Begler & Caroline Dyrefors Grufman, DN Debatt, "Flera allvarliga kränkningar i skolan de senaste veckorna"

     - En person i personalen som sliter i och skäller på barnen, hotar med stryk och skrämmer dem med det hen vet att de är rädda för.

     - A person on the staff pushes around and yells at the children, threatens with violence and frightens them with things they know they are afraid of.

   • 2014, Nina Åkestam, Meningen med hela skiten, :

     Vill hen att du ska chansa, eller ta det lugnt?

   • 2015, Ami Sundeman and Anna Lytsy, Kosmosdialogerna, :

     Hens utgångspunkt är alltid större och mera allomfattande än så.

Since around 2010 hen has seen increased usage, though it has not entered everyday language either in spoken or written form. It has been especially popular among activists for gender equality and adherents of queer theory, and with the transgender community.[2] Publishers of manuals of style and the Swedish Language Council do not proscribe the usage of hen, but recommend the inflected forms hens as the possessive and hen over henom as the object.[3]

Related to Norwegian and Icelandic hein (“whetstone”) and Old English hān (“stone; rock”) and modern English hone. See also Sanskrit sāna-, sānī and Latin cōs with the same meaning. See also (dialectal) Swedish hena ("to hone").[4]

• IPA^(key): /heːn/

hen c (singular definite henen, plural indefinte henar)

1. (archaic, dialectal) A whetstone, particularly the small and soft kind.

• bryne n
• brynsten c

• slipsten c (“grindstone”)

Related to Finnish hieno.

hen

1. fine
2. refined, elegant

• henota

• Zajceva, N. G.; Mullonen, M. I. (2007), “изысканный, мелкий, тонкий, утончённый”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary], Petrozavodsk: Periodika

From Proto-Mon-Khmer *hiən (“asthma”).

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [hɛn˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [hɛŋ˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [hɛŋ˧˧]

hen

1. (medicine) asthma

From Proto-Brythonic *hen, from Proto-Celtic *senos, from Proto-Indo-European *sénos.

• IPA^(key): /heːn/

hen (equative hyned, comparative hŷn or hynach or henach, superlative hynaf or henaf)

1. old, aged; ancient, antique, pristine, former; inveterate, chronic; original; senior, elder
2. stale, mouldy, musty, fusty
3. unreformed, old, traditional (of style or mode of expressing dates according to the Julian Calendar); reckoned according to the Old Style (of festival)

• This adjective has an alternate, more “senior” comparative in the form of hŷn and an equivalent alternate superlative in the form of hynaf.
• Unlike most Welsh adjectives, this word goes before the noun.
• Like most Welsh adjectives that go before the noun, this word triggers a soft mutation in the word that follows it.

hen

1. hen

• cuck

• J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)