Minimal pairs
noun
adv
Freq #44033
Meanings
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1
noun
Scots and Northern English: eyes
She watched him with bold een.
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2
adv
poetic contraction of even
I would e'en accept the harder road.
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3
noun
archaic or dialectal: evening
They returned at een as the light faded.
Thesaurus
Etymology
The eye sense continues a historical plural of eye, related to forms such as eyen. The poetic e'en and evening senses are contractions of even or evening. Their identical modern spelling joins historically separate forms.