eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for fain

2 headwords match “fain”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The five strongest follow; fægen ranks first.

  1. 1

    fægen

    score 20

    adjective · 10 inflected forms

    fain — joyful, rejoicing, fain

    • appears in the definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    strong nominative singular masculine fæġen
    strong nominative singular feminine fæġen
    strong nominative singular neuter fæġen
    strong accusative singular masculine fæġenne
    strong accusative singular feminine fæġene
    strong accusative singular neuter fæġen
  2. 2

    fægnian

    score 7

    verb · weak class 2 · 15 inflected forms

    fain — to be glad; celebrate; rejoice

    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    • verb: derivation noise is possible
    Paradigm summary
    first-person singular present indicative fæġniġe
    first-person singular past indicative fæġnode
    second-person singular present indicative fæġnast
    second-person singular past indicative fæġnodest
    third-person singular present indicative fæġnaþ
    third-person singular past indicative fæġnode

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “fain” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “fain”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0