Gotten - Why?!

[butterpuffed]

It's been used in the States for quite a while and seems normal when you hear Americans saying it but it's creeping over here now.

He's gotten himself some new friends...
They'd never gotten used to living there...

It really winds me up!

It's an archaic usage in formal English, but there are some parts of the UK where it didn't die out, so it's not really that it's coming over from the US but that it never truly went away over here.

It's an older form, and remained in British English only in some dialects.

Yes, i think much of the recent spread is because of imported TV shows

But it's a re-introduction not something new to Britain

Always been in use in Ireland, so definitely not an American import. And neither is celebrating Hallowe'en!

I didn't know it originated over here ... I still don't like it!

American-English has its roots in Britain because the British took the language over there in the 17th Century. 'Gotten' is on the Brits!

Ooh, this is really interesting. For some irrational reason I have always hated ‘gotten’, I never knew it was originally English.

In general I dislike the word ‘got’ as it often doesn’t add much to a sentence eg ‘I have a got a cold’ or ‘I have a cold’. I also really dislike ‘get’ in the ‘can I get a coffee?’ request in a cafe. Whenever I hear someone say that I want to shout ‘no you can’t get the coffee, that would be rude to jump over the counter and help yourself, you mean you would like the barista to get you a coffee.’

I don't like "got" as a stand-in for another word, as a general thing. I have caught a cold, rather than I have got one, I have bought a cabbage rather than I have got one, I have fetched a chair rather than I have got one.

Got seems to have become just a sort of shorthand catch-all word, and using one that is more precise is more fun as far as I am concerned.

"Gotten" doesn't bother me apart from wishing the person using it had used a different word altogether: "I've gotten all het up" could easily be "I've become all het up", as an example.

We still use gotten in misbegotten and forgotten. It probably came from Germany with the Saxons, as German verbs take -en endings.
When I was in infant school, nearly 60 years ago, our teacher wrote an essay on the blackboard where “got” was used multiple times in every sentence. Our task was to rewrite the whole thing, using various ( and better) replacements for “got”.
I’ve felt that I should avoid its use ever since!

It’s never gone away in much/most of Scotland. Given the amount of emigration from Scotland and Ireland to America it’s no surprise gotten made it there.

Bit like Halloween. Every year someone starts a thread on how this awful American tradition has made it across the pond yet my 83 year old father went out guising at Halloween.

I use gotten the whole time.

I also dislike it and the word, 'gifted', but neither are grammatically incorrect, strictly speaking. However, "I got gifted", would grate terribly.

‘Gotten’ is awful, awful, awful. I cringe every time I hear it or read it. I assume that the user is (1) thick and doesn’t understand modern English or (2) trying to sound like a west coast hipster, and failing.

We use Gotten In Scotland I know it isn't a grammatically correct English word but it is well used

@Mrsjayy

We use Gotten In Scotland I know it isn't a grammatically correct English word but it is well used

It is a grammatically correct English word. That's the problem. It means those of us who don't like and cringe at the sound of it are - wrong.

@Babdoc

We still use gotten in misbegotten and forgotten. It probably came from Germany with the Saxons, as German verbs take -en endings. When I was in infant school, nearly 60 years ago, our teacher wrote an essay on the blackboard where “got” was used multiple times in every sentence. Our task was to rewrite the whole thing, using various ( and better) replacements for “got”. I’ve felt that I should avoid its use ever since!

We were told at school to avoid it!

@jessstan1

I also dislike it and the word, 'gifted', but neither are grammatically incorrect, strictly speaking. However, "I got gifted", would grate terribly.

I don't mind gotten too much but gift used as a verb really irritates me and I am noticing it more and more.

Older form. Used a lot in Scotland and Ireland.

Your point is?

Because it is an archaic form, it’s perfectly acceptable here in the UK.

In general I dislike the word ‘got’ as it often doesn’t add much to a sentence eg ‘I have a got a cold’ or ‘I have a cold’.

"I have a cold" sounds American to me, just like "gotten" (I'm fully prepared for someone to tell me that it, too, is normal in some regions of the UK).

Gotten and gifted are both horrible cringe inducing for me, as is 'off of'.

I don't care for 'gifted' although I daresay someone will tell me it's old English! I can't see what's wrong with 'given'.

It's not Old English, but it is at least 400 years old, so definitely precedes the USA

I love that some people are stymied by gotten.

It's quite commonly used in my part of the UK. I think there are a lot of words used in certain pockets of the British Isles that fell out of common usage in the last 300 years or so. I suppose it's almost a colloquialism now, even though it's a past participle and grammatically correct. It makes sense that Americans would use it, since it would have been used around the time America was colonised, and there are a lot of things considered to be Americanisms which are actually Middle English ways of speaking. Such as saying "I guess so" in place of "I think so".

It's in the King James Bible.
Genesis chapter 4 verse 1. (and others)
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
However, the phrase 'pisseth against the wall' is also in the KJV, so perhaps it doesn't count for much. 🤣

Interesting that someone is so incensed by perfectly correct use of English that they resurrect a thread from over two years ago.