whiten

See also: Whiten

English

Etymology

From Middle English whitenen, whitnen, from Old Norse hvítna (“to whiten”), from Proto-Germanic *hwītnōną (“to whiten, become white”), from Proto-Indo-European *kwind-, *kwint- (“bright”), equivalent to white +‎ -en. Cognate with Icelandic hvítna (“to whiten”), Swedish vitna, hvitna (“to whiten”), Danish hvidne (“to whiten”). Compare Old English hwītian (“to whiten, become white, be white, make white”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈ(h)waɪ̯.tən/, [ˈ(h)waɪ̯tn̩], [ˈ(h)waɪ̯ʔn̩]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪtən

Verb

whiten (third-person singular simple present whitens, present participle whitening, simple past and past participle whitened)

1. (ergative) (To cause) to become white or whiter; to bleach or blanch.

   Age had whitened his hair.

   The trees in spring whiten with blossoms.

   • 2024 February 12, very tall bart, 1:34 from the start, in [YTP] Dennis Prager is crazy‎^[1] (YouTube poop; video), spoken by Penis Prager (Dennis Prager):

     Whenever black people are furious with me, I walk over to them and whiten their face, and scream and scream and scream 'daddy’s the boss.'

2. (cryptography) To increase the security of an iterated block cipher by steps that combine the data with portions of the key.

Derived terms

• prewhiten

Translations

to make white or whiter; to bleach or blanch

• Arabic: بَيَّضَ (bayyaḍa)
• Aromanian: alghescu
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܡܲܚܘܸܪ (maḥwir)
• Bulgarian: избелвам (bg) (izbelvam)
• Catalan: blanquejar (ca)
• Esperanto: blankigi
• Finnish: vaalentaa (fi); valkaista (fi) (make completely white)
• French: blanchir (fr)
• Galician: branquear (gl), albear (gl)
• German: weißen (de)
• Gothic: 𐌲𐌰𐍈𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (gaƕeitjan)
• Greek: λευκαίνω (el) (lefkaíno), ασπρίζω (el) (asprízo)

  Ancient: λευκαίνω (leukaínō)

• Hebrew: הִלְבִּין (he) (hilbín)
• Hungarian: fehérít (hu)
• Ido: blankigar (io)
• Indonesian: putihkan (id)
• Italian: imbiancare (it), sbiancare (it)
• Japanese: 白くする (shirokusuru), 白める (shiromeru)
• Korean: 하얗게 하다 (hayake hada)
• Latin: albicō, albō (la)
• Malay: putihkan
• Maori: whakamā, whakapūaho
• Polish: bielić (pl) impf
• Portuguese: branquear (pt), embranquecer (pt)
• Romanian: albi (ro)
• Russian: бели́ть (ru) impf (belítʹ), побели́ть (ru) pf (pobelítʹ); (bleach) отбе́ливать (ru) impf (otbélivatʹ), отбели́ть (ru) pf (otbelítʹ)
• Santali: ᱯᱳᱱᱰ (ponḍ)
• Spanish: blanquear (es)
• Swedish: göra vit (sv), göra vitare, bleka (sv)
• Turkish: ağartmak (tr), aklamak (tr), beyazlatmak (tr), beyazlaştırmak

  Ottoman Turkish: بیاضلاتمق (beyazlatmak)

• Welsh: gwynnu (cy)

to become white or whiter; to bleach or blanch

• Ainu: レタㇻ (retar)
• Arabic: اِبْيَضَّ (ibyaḍḍa)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܚܵܘܹܪ (ḥāwēr)
• Bulgarian: побелявам (pobeljavam)
• Catalan: blanquejar (ca)
• Esperanto: blankiĝi
• Finnish: vaaleta (fi), vaalentua (fi)
• French: blanchir (fr)
• German: weiß werden
• Greek: λευκαίνω (el) (lefkaíno), ασπρίζω (el) (asprízo)
• Ido: blankeskar (io)
• Indonesian: memutih (id)
• Irish: aol, bánaigh
• Italian: imbiancarsi, sbiancarsi
• Japanese: 白む (ja) (shiramu), 白ばむ (shirobamu), 白くなる (shirokunaru)
• Korean: 하얘지다 (ko) (hayaejida), 희어지다 (huieojida)
• Malay: memutih
• Polish: bieleć impf, zbieleć pf, bielić się impf
• Portuguese: embranquecer (pt)
• Romanian: albi (ro)
• Russian: беле́ть (ru) impf (belétʹ), побеле́ть (ru) (pobelétʹ)
• Santali: ᱯᱳᱱᱰ (ponḍ)
• Spanish: blanquear (es)
• Swedish: vitna (sv)
• Telugu: తెల్లబడు (tellabaḍu)
• Turkish: ağarmak (tr), aklanmak (tr), beyazlamak, beyazlaşmak (tr)
• Ukrainian: біли́ти (uk) impf (bilýty)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: سپیکردن (spîkirdin)