Spoken
/ˈspoʊkən/noun
Past participle of speak; expressed in speech rather than writing.
Did you know?English "speak" belongs to a very old Germanic word-family for uttering sound, and its past participle "spoken" preserves the ancient strong-verb pattern that once gave English its most powerful verbs.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*speḱ-
“to observe, look at”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*sprekaną
“to speak, talk”
Old English
English
specan / sprecan
“to speak, utter words”
Old English
English
spōcen
“spoken; uttered”
Middle English
English
spoken
“spoken, expressed in speech”
Modern English
English
spoken
“expressed orally rather than in writing”