"Gotten"

[ArcticLingered]

I'm quite new to MN - and have picked up the default language / advice that's freely given to many issues - LTB, people are always "vile" or "entitled" etc. But one that baffles me is the use of "gotten" in place of "got".
Please excuse my ignorance - but I thought gotten had died out centuries ago, though it is still used in USA English.
But LOADS of posters on MN use it. Is it due to autocorrect / predicative text? Or do some parts of the UK still use it? Or is there one poster with loads of different account names who posts really prolifically?

Bloody hell, you'd have thought America just sprang from the ground, spontaneously speaking English and whipping up events like Halloween, according to MN

I'm sure I've read that American English is actually closer to 16 century English than most modern UK* *dialects/accents are.

Yep - and American spellings as well.
My kids say “gotten” even though DH and I have never said that and it isn’t used in our region. It’s because America predominates on TV and social media.

There are lots of word they use in America that we used and then changed, I think faucet was another one. Not sure I'd switch back, it seems unnecessarily fussy.

Always used in Ireland and I'm guessing Scotland and many parts of England.

I've learned lots about the things that people are judged for in my many years on MN, but "gotten" is definitely the one that surprised me the most. It's the most boring, normal word to me - like "the" or "be" or "then".

What baffles you about it op?

You know it is a word people used to use. So I'm surprised with prior knowledge of a word anyone would be baffled by its use.

Gotten has been in use since the 4th century in Britain and was used by Shakespeare. In Richard III he writes:
"With much ado at length have gotten leave,
To look upon my sometimes royal master’s face."

Not an Americanism, or new, just a different way of using English. I've known of the term 'lll gotten gains' since I was a child and I'm 54 now, and I'm definitely not newfangled!

Absolutely hate it. I’ve noticed more and more people using it everyday and it’s horrible.

No it derives from old English. Still said in many parts of the UK.

This was an interesting read - apparently it nearly died out in USA as well.

https://stroppyeditor.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/the-us-has-gotten-this-word-back-and-the-uk-probably-will-too/

Jeremy Butterfield’s 2015 edition of Fowler notes that gotten is on the increase in the UK. And I’ve been noticing it more and more in British conversation over the last few years – mostly from younger people. So I’d guess this shift is generational rather than because individuals are changing their usage

I wonder if that why it grates initially as it's a generational shift rather than regional one.

What on earth is horrible about it?

Yep. People can argue all they like that it's an archaic word but there's no denying that its use has massively increased in recent years. That doesn't generally happen of its own accord - it IS an Americanism in its modern use

Google trends proof

I don't like it at all, but when I was at Uni in Scotland it was prevalent.

I’ve lived in Scotland most of my life except for a few years in London. The only people I’ve ever heard say “gotten” in real life are my American relatives and my youngest teenage DC is who much more into TikTok etc than her older sister (they both say “season” and that is definitely because they are the Netflix generation). My brother pointed out to me once that Simon Groome who used to present Blue Peter pronounced the word “new” as “noo” and that he came from the same area of England as the Mayflower would have sailed from. Probably nothing to do with it but I thought oh right enough.

Shakespeare was using "gotten" well before the existence of the modern day United States of America! 🤦‍♂️

It's a British word that's still around in the UK although it's more common in the US which explains your perception.

You have to remember that perception is not the same thing as reality. 🤷‍♂️

'Gotten' never went out of use in Ireland.

Why do you absolutely hate it ?

Do you mind saying where (roughly) this was? Genuine question, I’m not trying to catch you out.

Has there been a big decline in got or are we getting so many things now that it absorbed the impact?

It doesn't register with me, it's just a word. Although I do see this wheeled out on MN with fair regularity so I assume it's more commonly used in some parts of the UK than others. It an innocuous word, it serves a purpose and it's obvious what it means. I can't imagine why some people get pissed off about it being used.

Really? I use it often as do loads of people I know. I suppose it might depend where you lived .

As I think others mention, it is the older form, which went with settlers to the USA. They still retain it, but we have lost the use of it in more recent centuries.

South west, Edinburgh,
central belt. Lived in Aberdeen for a year. Several good friends from Fife. I grew up (south west) hearing plenty of words I don’t hear elsewhere so I don’t doubt it’s region specific.

Language evolves- if it didn't we would all still be saying "Forsooth" and the like.
I don't like to see it professionally but anything is fine colloquially imo.

Such an odd reaction for a word that is widely used in spoken English, and which is by no means a new word.