Whitened

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Made white or lighter in color by removing or covering older colors
2. Changed something's shade to a paler tone, often by bleaching or cleaning
3. Treated a surface or object so its appearance is lighter or more pale

Etymology: "Whitened" is the past tense and past participle of "whiten," which English gained in the Middle Ages from Old Norse "hvítna," meaning "to become white." Its roots run deeper still, to a Proto-Germanic verb that described something turning white, traceable back to an ancient Indo-European root meaning "bright." English already had a related verb in Old English, "hwītian," so the Norse word was reinforcing a native idea rather than introducing a new one. The ending "-en" is the familiar suffix that turns an adjective into a verb, as in "darken" or "soften." Put it on "white" and you get a verb meaning "make or become white." The past forms "whitened" and "whitened" simply add the regular -ed ending to that verb, which is why the same word covers both the action in the past and the resulting state described in the adjective sense.

Synonyms: bleached, lightened, paled, decolorized, faded

Antonyms: darkened, colored, tinted, dyed, stained