begotten

1. 1
   verbliterary

   Past participle of beget.

   The old king had begotten two sons, and neither of them wanted the throne.

   Their reckless spending has begotten a debt the next generation will have to pay.

   Note

   The participle that follows have and be: the king had begotten two sons; the quarrel was begotten by rumor. It carries both meanings of beget, a child fathered and an effect caused, with the verb's literary ring. The King James Bible of 1611 sets it beside the old past tense in a single verse: Adam "had begotten Seth," and then "begate sonnes and daughters."

2. 2
   adjective

   Brought into existence by the parent or parents who begot one.

   Christians describe Jesus as the only begotten Son of God.

   The will made no distinction between his begotten children and the stepchildren he had raised.

   Similarbiological

   Note

   Its familiar setting is the phrase only begotten, from the King James Bible: God "gaue his only begotten Sonne." Unlike the participle after have, it stands before a noun as a description, and it does not compare: a child is begotten or not, never more begotten. It stresses a blood tie, the child of one's own body rather than one taken in.

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