German

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Etymology

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From Middle High German brinnen, from Old High German brinnan, from Proto-West Germanic *brinnan. More at burn.

Verb

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brinnen (class 3 strong, third-person singular present brinnt, past tense brann, past participle gebronnen or gebrunnen, past subjunctive bränne, auxiliary haben)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete, still dialectal) to burn, be on fire, combust

Usage notes

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  • Intransitive brinnen (be on fire, be burnt) was originally distinguished from transitive brennen (set on fire, cause to be burnt). By Early Modern German times, however, this distinction was already chiefly restricted to southern regions, in some of which it survives dialectally to this day (cf. Bavarian brinna). In Modern Standard German, brinnen is obsolete and, in fact, the originally transitive simplex brennen has now become almost exclusively intransitive.

Conjugation

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