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Harkens vs Darkens - What's the difference?

harkens | darkens |

As verbs the difference between harkens and darkens

is that harkens is third-person singular of harken while darkens is third-person singular of darken.

harkens

English

Verb

(head)
  • (harken)
  • Anagrams

    *

    harken

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • ‘to listen, hear, regard’, more common form in the US.
  • * 1833 :
  • Œnone Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.
  • * 1883:
  • We were not many minutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped to lay hold of each other and harken . But there was no unusual sound...
  • * 1942 ,
  • ... whom he had revered and harkened to and loved and lost and grieved:
  • (figuratively, US) To hark back, to return or revert (to a subject etc.), to allude to, to evoke, to long or pine for (a past event or era).
  • * 1994 , David Coogan, Electronic Writing Centers: Computing the Field of Composition , page 4
  • The emerging consensus that writing was merely transcribed speech, then, harkened back to the pre-disciplinary, liberal arts college
  • * 2005 , Carol Padden, Tom L. Humphries, Inside Deaf Culture , page 48
  • Bell argued that the manual approach was "backwards," and harkened to a primitive age where humans used gesture and pantomime.

    Usage notes

    The bare form harken has been used since the 1980s, though some authorities frown upon this and prefer the traditional form hark back.

    References

    * * Merriam-Webster’s dictionary of English usage, 1995, p. 497 * “ Hark/Hearken”, Paul Brians, Common Errors in English Usage, (2nd Edition, November, 2008)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    darkens

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (darken)
  • Anagrams

    * *

    darken

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make dark or darker by reducing light.
  • * Bible, Exodus x. 15
  • They [locusts] covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened .
  • To become dark or darker (having less light).
  • To make dark or darker in colour.
  • To become dark or darker in colour.
  • To render gloomy, darker in mood
  • * Shakespeare
  • With these forced thoughts, I prithee, darken not / The mirth of the feast.
  • To become gloomy, darker in mood
  • To blind, impair eyesight
  • * Bible, Rom xi. 10
  • Let their eyes be darkened , that they may not see.
  • To be blinded, loose clear vision
  • To cloud, obscure, or perplex; to render less clear or intelligible.
  • * Bible, Job xxxviii. 2
  • Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Such was his wisdom that his confidence did seldom darken his foresight.
  • To make foul; to sully; to tarnish.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I must not think there are / Evils enough to darken all his goodness.

    Conjugation

    (en-conj-simple)

    Derived terms

    * darkener * darken someone's door

    Synonyms

    * blacken

    Anagrams

    * * * * * English ergative verbs