enhauncen

Middle English

Alternative forms

• anhaunse, anhaunsen, enhansen, enhaunce, enhaunse, enhaunsen
• anhawncen, enhance, enhaunsyn, enhawnce, enhawse, in-hawnse (Late Middle English); enhawncyn (Promptorium Parvulorum)
• anansy, anhansy (Gloucestershire)

Etymology

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman enhauncer, from Vulgar Latin *inaltiāre.

The second /n/ is an unetymological excrescence.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛnˈ(h)au̯nsən/, /ɛnˈ(h)ansən/, /an-/

Verb

enhauncen (third-person singular simple present enhaunceth, present participle enhauncende, enhauncynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle enhaunced)

1. To lift, heighten, or raise up.

   Synonym: heven

2. To improve or promote someone:
   1. To extol or gladden; to give praise to.
   2. To honour; to give a high office or dignity.

      Synonym: heven

   3. To provide with knowledge, wealth or power.
3. To feel conceited or vain; to have excessive pride.
4. (rare) To instill pride or vanity; to make vain.
5. (rare) To make (a source of sound) louder or more prominent.
6. (rare) To become wealthy or expensive.
7. (rare, astrology) To be influential (of a planet).

Conjugation

Conjugation of enhauncen (weak in -ede)

infinitive	(to) enhauncen, enhaunce
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	enhaunce	enhaunced(e)
2nd-person singular	enhauncest	enhauncedest
3rd-person singular	enhaunceth	enhaunced(e)
subjunctive singular	enhaunce
imperative singular		—
plural1	enhauncen, enhaunce	enhaunceden, enhaunced(e)
imperative plural	enhaunceth, enhaunce	—
participles	enhauncynge, enhauncende	enhaunced

¹ Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Related terms

• enhauncynge

Descendants

• English: enhance

References

• “enhauncen, -ien, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 August 2019.