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gan

verb
USGAN/ɡæn/

Formsgans, gannin, went, gone

2 meanings of gan

Practice

  1. 1
    goverbdialectalNorthumbriaintransitive
    To go; to move or proceed from one place to another.

    We'll gan down to the coast once the tide turns.

    Children round here gan to school across the fields.

    UsagePast tense is went, as with go; the -ing form is often spelled gannin.

    Similargo (entry), head, walk, proceed

    Note

    Northumbria keeps this verb of motion. It is probably a variant of gang, which runs back through Middle English gangen to Old English gangan, "to step; walk; go". The present participle is gannin, as in the Geordie "Am gannin yem" that Chris Dockerty's teachers tried to train out of him in The Ramblings of a Geordie Part 1 (2011).

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

  2. 2
    beganverbarchaic
    Past tense of gin. Archaic: began.
    Note

    Here the past tense belongs to an archaic gin meaning "to begin". It has nothing to do with the gin of cotton seeds or of traps. It is a word of older storytelling: gan to play, gan to fear. An infinitive follows it, with or without to, and together they mark an action getting under way, or simply the past, like did. Keep it apart from the Northumbrian verb for "go", which has the same spelling but belongs to present-day regional speech.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Gan is the past tense of the archaic verb gin meaning to begin. en.wiktionary.org
    • Gin meaning to begin has a different origin from gin referring to cotton processing or traps. en.wiktionary.org
    • Historical gan can be followed by an infinitive either with or without to. seijo.ac.jp
    • The construction can mark an action beginning, but gan also developed an auxiliary use comparable to did, without necessarily expressing a beginning. pure.manchester.ac.uk

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Origin

The regional verb for "go" is probably a variant of "gang," from Middle English "gangen" and Old English "gangan" ("to step, walk, or go"). The archaic "gan" meaning "began" is a separate word, the past tense of "gin," a Middle English shortening of "beginnen" ("to begin").

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

  • The regional verb gan meaning go is probably a variant of gang. en.wiktionary.org
  • Its proposed ancestry runs through Middle English gangen and Old English gangan, meaning to step, walk, or go. en.wiktionary.org
  • Gan meaning began is a separate word and the past tense of gin. en.wiktionary.org
  • Gin derives from a Middle English shortening of beginnen, meaning to begin. en.wiktionary.org