the form assumed in ME. by the OE. -an, the termination of the nom., accus., and dat. plural of sbs. of the weak declension, as in oxa masc., ox, pl. oxan; tunge fem., tongue, pl. tungan; éare neut., ear, pl. éaran. In origin the suffix belonged to the stem; but as in OE. the nom. sing. of these sbs. ended in -a, -e (levelled in ME. to -e), while the OE. -an of the oblique cases sing. became -e in ME., the termination -en came to be regarded as a formative of the plural, and its use was extended in southern ME. to many other words of OE. and Fr. origin. It was also added to the remains of other old plurals, as brether, childer (OE. cildru), ky (OE. cý), whence the modern brethren, children, kine. Apart from these the sole surviving representative (in standard Eng.) of this inflexion is ox-en; but hos-en (OE. hosan) continued in use until 17th c. In southern and south midland dialects the plurals in -en are still of frequent occurrence.
