blithen

English

Etymology

From blithe +‎ -en.

Verb

blithen (third-person singular simple present blithens, present participle blithening, simple past and past participle blithened)

  1. (transitive) To make glad or blithe; gladden.
    • 1895, John Galt, The Entail Or the Lairds of Grippy, page 304:
      When we entered the parlour, which had been so often blithened with the jocose spirit of its defunct mistress, we confess that our emotions were almost too great for our fortitude, []
    • 1904, William Wells Newell, Words for Music, page 71:
      Let every life be content with its share
      Of dew, and sunshine, and blithening air.
  2. (intransitive) To become glad or blithe; gladden.
    • 1924, Joshua Freeman Crowell, Florence Hathaway Crowell, Cape Cod in Poetry, page 16:
      The villages blithened when he came; []

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *blīþijan. Equivalent to blīthi (happy) +‎ -en.

Verb

blīthen

  1. to be/become happy

Inflection

Descendants

  • Middle Dutch: bliden

Further reading

  • blithen”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012