hitten

hitten

1. (archaic, rare, dialectal) past participle of hit

   The bullet had hitten her in the stomach.

   • 1869, R. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone [1]:

     But though I could hardly hold the gun, unless with my back against a bar, it did me good to hear it go off, and hope to have hitten his enemies.

• Audio:

  (file)

hitten

1. plural of hit

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɪtn̩/
• Hyphenation: hit‧ten

hitten (weak, third-person singular present hittet, past tense hittete, past participle gehittet, auxiliary haben)

1. (slang, roleplaying games) to hit (to strike)
2. (slang) to hit (to reach or achieve)

• one-hitten

• hit, hitte, hyt
• hittyne (Derbyshire); hette (Norfolk); hutte (Southwest Midland)

Inherited from Old English hyttan (“to come upon”), from Old Norse hitta, from Proto-Germanic *hittijaną (“to come upon”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd- (“to fall upon”).

Both Old English hyttan and its Middle English reflexes point to Old English /y/ in this word; possibly it was initially borrowed into a variety which had unrounded /y/ to /i/, then received /y/ in other varieties by analogy with native words where /y/ corresponded to /i/ in unrounding varieties.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhitən/

hitten (third-person singular simple present hitteth, present participle hittynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative hitte, past participle hit)

1. (ambitransitive) To hit; to come into contact with (especially forcefully):
   1. To strike; to land a blow (with one's hand or weapon)
   2. To land a projectile against.
   3. (figuratively) To succeed or afflict; to take effect.
   4. (intransitive, rare) To fall or collide.
2. (ambitransitive) To encounter or find; to meet with or come upon.
3. (intransitive) To travel or journey.
4. (ambitransitive, rare) To throw or toss; to cause to hit.

• English: hit (see there for further descendants)
• Middle Scots: hit
  • Scots: hit

• “hitten, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “hit, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany (2019), “hitte v. (wk.)”, in The Gersum Project ⁠‎^[2], University of Cambridge, University of Cardiff, and the University of Sheffield.

hitten

1. definite singular of hit