Etymologically
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stricken

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈstɹɪkən/[1]

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

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