• Harken

    Pronunciation

    • RP IPA: /ˈhɑːkÉ™n/
    • Rhymes: -ɑː(r)kÉ™n

    Full definition of harken

    Verb

    1. Alternative spelling of hearken ‘to listen, hear, regard’, more common form in the US.
    2. (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 4The 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 48Bell 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.

    Anagrams

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