flatten

Etymology

It is formed from English flat + -en.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Etymonline dates the verb to the late 14th century, with the senses "to prostrate oneself" and "to fall flat".^[6] A verb Middle English flatten (“to beat, strike; to splash; to rush”) is recorded from about 1330, in “Arthour and Merlin”; the Middle English Dictionary derives it from Old French flatir (“to knock down, dash”), comparing the phrase “fallen flat”;^[7] Johnson too derived the verb from French flatir.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make flat: before 1631, in Donne's Progresse of Soule.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1630, and Etymonline and Dictionary.com to the 1620s.^[4][6][5]

Semantic evolution

Many of the verb's senses follow those of flat itself.^[2] Besides making something level, it soon meant making a drink "flat" or insipid (1656), dulling or taking the interest out of something (1693), and depressing someone's spirits (1683–1796);^[2][9] Johnson (1755) gives "to make even", "to beat down to the ground", "to make vapid" and "to deject".^[8] The intransitive "to become flat" dates from 1734 and the use of a wind dying down from 1748.^[2] Specialised senses followed: to give paint a matt finish (1823), to lower a note in pitch (1824), to trim a sail more nearly fore and aft (1839, flatten in) and to level out an aeroplane (1913, flatten out).^[2] Slang flatten or flatten out, to knock a person down, is recorded in Australia from 1885,^[10] and the OED's sense "to defeat utterly" from 1892 and "to crush with a retort, humiliate" from 1932.^[9] In north-west Derbyshire dialect flatten meant to strike or slap.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1631 – to make flat, to level.^[2]
• 1656 – to make flat or insipid, also figuratively.^[2][9]
• 1683 – to depress, take the energy out of (obsolete by 1796).^[2][9]
• 1693 – to make dull or uninteresting.^[2][9]
• 1734 – intransitive, to become flat or flatter.^[2][9]
• 1748 – of the wind, to drop.^[2][9]
• 1823 – to paint without gloss.^[2]
• 1824 – to lower a note in pitch.^[2][9]
• 1839 – nautical, to flatten in a sail.^[2]
• 1885 – slang, to knock a person down.^[10] The OED's first record of this, as “to defeat utterly”, is from 1892.^[9]
• 1913 – to flatten out, to level an aeroplane.^[2]
• 1932 – to crush with a remark, humiliate.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make flat or flatter; to level or smooth: She flattened the map on the table.^[12][4][2]
2. To knock down or lay low; to demolish: The storm flattened the barn.^[12][4]
3. To defeat completely; to overwhelm.^[4][9]
4. To depress or dispirit.^[4][8]
5. To lower a musical note in pitch.^[2][9]
6. To become flat or flatter; to level off, often with out.^[12][2]

Word family

• flattener
• overflatten

Related words

• flat

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin