Bursten

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic form meaning to have suddenly exploded from internal force ; to have split apart abruptly ; to have experienced a violent outward break
2. Used in older English to indicate having broken open forcefully ; to have ruptured in a sudden manner ; to have undergone a forceful and rapid splitting
3. An old-fashioned past participle for having burst apart ; to have been torn open by pressure ; to have rapidly and violently come apart

Etymology: "Bursten" is an older past participle of "burst," kept alive mostly in poetry and dialect. The verb "burst" itself is a rather tough little word, and its history is simple: it traces back to a Proto-Germanic verb meaning "to burst," and the form "bursten" comes from the past participle of that verb, which in Old English took the forms "borsten" and "geborsten." Over the centuries, English speakers moved the participle form out of the way and settled on "burst" for both the present and past forms. The "-en" ending, which once marked many participles in English, survived in a few verbs such as "broken" and "spoken," but it faded from "bursten" in ordinary speech. The result is that "bursten" now reads as a deliberately archaic or regional flourish, the sort of word a poet might reach for to lend a line some old-fashioned weight.

Synonyms: burst, explode, rupture, break, shatter

Antonyms: seal, close, contain, hold, repair