stricken

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the old past participle from English strike,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} now largely replaced by struck.^[5] That verb is from Middle English striken, from Old English strīcan (“to pass lightly over, stroke; to go, move”), whose past participle was stricen,^[5] from Proto-Germanic *strīkaną, cognate with Dutch strijken and German streichen.^[5][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Advanced in years, in the phrase striken in elde, probably before 1300,^[4] or in the 13th century according to Etymonline;^[5] the OED's first record is stricken in age in Sir Ferumbras (c. 1380).^[2][4] This use comes from strike in the old sense "to go, move", so that stricken meant "far advanced".^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective proper, stricken was first used in 1513, in Gavin Douglas's translation of the Aeneid, of a deer wounded in the chase,^[2][4][5] and in 1538 of anything struck with a blow.^[2] A stricken measure of grain, levelled with the brim and not heaped, is recorded from 1495, and a stricken sail, one lowered, from before 1586.^[2][8] Johnson (1755) called it "the ancient participle of strike".^[11] The sense "overwhelmed by disease, grief, terror and the like" appears in combinations from the 1530s according to Etymonline,^[5] and the OED dates it to 1796 for the mind and heart and to 1846 for people and communities.^[2] The jocular sense "smitten with love" dates from 1841, in Dickens.^[2] Walter Scott used stricken field, a pitched battle, and stricken hour, a full hour struck by the clock, in 1820;^[2] in Scots a stricken hour meant a whole hour.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1300 – striken in elde, advanced in years.^[4]
• c. 1380 – stricken in age.^[2]
• 1495 – of a measure, levelled with the brim.^[2]
• 1513 – of a deer, wounded in the chase.^[2][4]
• 1538 – struck with a blow.^[2]
• before 1586 – of a sail, lowered.^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson's "ancient participle of strike".^[11]
• 1796 – of the mind or heart, afflicted with grief or frenzy.^[2]
• 1820 – stricken field, stricken hour.^[2]
• 1841 – jocularly, smitten with love.^[2]
• 1846 – of a person or community, afflicted with disease or trouble.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Seriously afflicted by illness, misfortune or grief: Aid was sent to the stricken region.^[13][7][2]
2. Showing great distress or shock: He gave her a stricken look.^[8][2]
3. As the second part of compounds, overcome by the thing named: panic-stricken, poverty-stricken.^[8][13]
4. (archaic) Hit or wounded, especially of a hunted deer.^[13][7][2]
5. stricken in years (archaic): old.^[7][2]
6. Of a measure of grain, levelled off even with the top, not heaped.^[7][2]
7. stricken field (literary): a pitched battle.^[8][2]

Word family

• strickenly
• unstricken
• poverty-stricken
• grief-stricken
• panic-stricken
• planet-stricken
• terror-stricken

Related words

• strike
• struck
• streak
• stroke

Usage notes

As a past participle of strike, stricken has given way to struck, but it survives especially in American legal and legislative language, where testimony or a clause is stricken from the record.^[5]

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 v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins