the formative of the pa. pple. of wk. vbs., had in OE. the forms -ed, -ad, -od (-ud), where the vowel represents (though not with uniform consistency) the thematic suffix characteristic of the class to which the vb. belongs; the ppl. suffix proper being -d:—OTeut. -đo-:—OAryan -tó-; cf. Gr. vbl. adjs. in -τός, and L. pples. in -tus. In some OE. vbs. the suffix is added immediately to the root-syllable, and therefore appears without preceding vowel as -d, or after a voiceless cons. as -t; e.g., in seald SOLD, f. sęllan to SELL, boht BOUGHT, f. bycʓan to BUY. In ME. the several vowelled forms of the suffix (where they were not contracted) were levelled to -ed (-id, -yd), and this -ed is in most cases still retained in writing, although the pronunc. is now normally vowelless (d), or after voiceless cons. (t), as in robed, hoped. The full pronunc. (ėd) regularly occurs in ordinary speech only in the endings -ted, -ded; but it is frequently required by the metre of verse, and is still often used in the public reading of the Bible and the Liturgy. A few words, such as blessed, cursed, beloved, which are familiar chiefly in religious use, have escaped the general tendency to contraction when used as adjs. From 16th to 18th c. the suffix, when following a voiceless cons. (preceded by a cons. or a short vowel), was often written -t, in accordance with the pronunc., as in jumpt, whipt, stept. This is still practised by some writers, but is not now in general use. Where, however, a long vowel in the vb.-stem is shortened in the pple., as in crept, slept, the spelling with -t is universal. Some pples. have a twofold spelling, according as the vowel is shortened or not in pronunc.; e.g., leapt (lept), and leaped (līpt).
In several other classes of instances the -ed of early ME. has undergone subsequent contraction (in the inflected forms, however, this process had already begun in OE.): e.g., the endings -ded, -ted became -d(d, -t(t, as in bled(d, mod. bled, for OE. bléded (see BLEED v.), set(t, mod. set, for OE. sęted (see SET v.); after l, n, r, the ending -ded has often become -t, as in gilt, sent, girt; and in certain cases l, m, n at the end of a verb-stem cause the suffix -ed to become -t, as in spilt, unkempt, burnt. These contractions occur only in the older words of the language, and many of the words in which they are found have parallel forms without contraction, in most cases with some difference of meaning or use. The Sc. form of -ed is -it, with which cf. such early ME. forms as i-nempnet named, i-crunet crowned, though these belong chiefly to extreme southern dialects.
2. The suffix was (chiefly in 15th, 16th and 17th c.) added to adapted forms of L. pples., the intention being to assimilate these words in form to the native words which they resembled in function; e.g., acquisited, situated, versed (sine). Similarly, the ppl. adjs. in -ate, ad. L. -ātus, common in mod. scientific nomenclature, have usually parallel forms in -ated, without difference in meaning; e.g., bipinnate(d), dentate(d).
3. It is possible that some of the adjs. formed by the addition of -ed to sbs. may be examples of this suffix rather than of -ED2. The apparent instances of this which can be traced back to OE., however, are found to belong to the latter.
