Prefix of many verbs, action nouns, and agent nouns (and of some adjs.) adopted from OF or formed in ME. In OF the chief function of en- [L in-] is to form verbs from nouns and adjs. These verbs are predominantly transitive and the prefix sometimes has intensive force (as does L in-). ME adopted many such verbs from OF, together with the action nouns and the agent nouns derived from them, e.g. entenden, entendaunt, entendaunce, entendement; enchaunten, enchauntement, enchauntǒur, enchaunteresse, enchaunterīe. In ME the prefix en- is highly productive, e.g. en-glāsed glazed, en-thrallen, en-hangen to hang, en-neuen renew, refresh. Not infrequently the prefix is carried over into the noun on which the verb is formed, e.g. enacte beside acte enactment, envenim beside venim poison. an-, the AF variant of this prefix, occurs frequently beside en- in words that were adopted early, and it became established in a few words, such as an-ointen. As a rule, variants in an- are treated under en-. Many verbs and action nouns with prefix en- are paralleled in OF by verbs and nouns with prefix es- [L ex-] or as- [L as-, variant of ad-], often without any difference in meaning. This situation led to a rather indiscriminate use of these prefixes in ME, e.g. as-semblen beside en-semblen, as-senten beside en-senten, en-sūren beside es-sūren, as-sūren. Since es- and as- are morphologically distinct from en-, though synonymous with it, separate entries are provided for these forms. Many learned or technical terms appear both with prefix en- and in- in ME, e.g. entente [OF] and intente [ML intentus], enclīnen and inclīnen. Words showing these variants are entered under en- or under in-, whichever appears to be more common.