redden

Etymology

It is formed from English red + -en.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} An older verb is Middle English reden, from Old English readian.^[4] The OED compares the earlier verb red, recorded from 1225, and rudden.^[2] The adjective is from Old English rēad,^[7][4] from Proto-Germanic *raudaz (“red”),^[8] from Proto-Indo-European *reudh- (“red, ruddy”).^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make red: 1552, in R. Huloet's Abcedarium Anglico Latinum.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1610s,^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1611,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford to the early 17th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The transitive verb came first, and the sense of becoming red followed in the 17th century, first of a person's face.^[2][4] The OED finds a person flushing, with shame or rage, before 1648,^[2] and Etymonline dates the intransitive to the 1640s;^[4] anything growing red appears in 1669.^[2] Johnson (1755) entered both "to make red" and "to grow red", quoting Dryden.^[9] In astronomy, the verb has described a celestial object giving out light of a longer wavelength since 1852, and light being shifted in this way since 1919.^[2] Poultry manuals have said since 1909 that a pullet reddens when its comb and wattles deepen in colour as it nears laying.^[2] The English Dialect Dictionary records the same use as redden up in Cheshire, and redden for causing a blush in Lanarkshire and for turning land with plough or spade in Munster.^[10]

Timeline

• 1552 – to make something red.^[2]
• before 1648 – of a person, to flush or blush.^[2]
• 1669 – to grow red.^[2]
• 1679 – of the eyes, to become red around the rims.^[2]
• 1852 – of a celestial object, to give out light of a longer wavelength.^[2]
• 1909 – of a pullet, to deepen in colour at the comb and wattles.^[2]
• 1919 – to shift the light of a celestial object to a longer wavelength.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make red or reddish: Rust had reddened the water in the old pipes.^[5][2][3]
2. To become red or reddish: The sky reddened over the harbour.^[5][2][3]
3. To become red in the face; to flush or blush: He reddened at the question.^[5][2][3]
4. Of the eyes, to become red around the rims, especially from tears.^[2]
5. (astronomy) Of a celestial object, to give out light of a longer wavelength; of something else, to shift its light in this way.^[2]
6. Of a pullet, to deepen in colour at the comb and wattles as it nears laying, often with up.^[2][3]

Word family

• outredden

Related words

• red
• ruddy

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 t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f 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 g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ 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)