"Woken" ... is this word still around?

I was surprised to find this in a recent book:

"Walter Wellman was woken by a knock on his door at four A.M."

I had to consult my Websters to find that it was a past participle of "wake" and indeed a word. I would have used the word "awakened" and so would 99% of all the other writers I've encountered.

I noted that the writer was British. Is "woken" a more common form than "awakened" across the pond? Usually, when this sort of topic has come up, it's due to "those Goddamn Brits" with those archaisms or those "Goddamn Yanks" polluting the language.

 

I like to use "awoken" instead of "awakened" most of the time, as a simple preterite. I don't use "woken" by itself as a simple preterite, but I very frequently say "had woken" and "has woken." I'm American.

 

The word is commonplace on my island of Geriatrica. This morning I was woken by the seagulls. But I have seen threads about the word on here, and the genuine pain generated. Possibly requires an adjudicator in reference to Luke and his relationship to his father in the later film series?

 

See https://www.writingforums.org/threads/share-your-first-three-sentences.145670/page-193#post-1734549, Post 4818 to about... far too long. And then some discussion at https://www.writingforums.org/threads/past-perfect-the-forgotten-verb-tense.160649/.

Or, to save the aggravation - yup, it's a word. Still used, by some.

 

I would say 'yep, definitely still use it.' But now I've read it several times over in this thread the word sound very alien to me!!

 

"Woke" has become NewSpeak for "agrees with our agenda."
So I avoid using it to mean "awakened."

 

Same ways we never reference the transformers for the train set & scalextric.

 

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again.

(Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)​

 

It is, it may not be around as much because a lot of people don't write in past tense, (or at least not the ones I know). And the word 'Woken' is largely used in past tense, at least when I have seen to used. It is also better fited to an old fashioned writing style, which may example why its not coomen.

 

I'm pretty sure that a substantial majority of the fiction being published is still in past tense. Though I would be curious to see a statistic.

 

I largely read high fantasy, which normally is not.

 

Are you sure? Maybe YA high fantasy? Maybe you could name some books.

 

Just because we CAN use a word doesn’t mean we should. I prefer, actually, not to interrupt my characters when they are sleeping — rather cliched, for one thing, but more importantly, I like my characters to be well-rested .

 

I always use the antique form of the word, but then I'm writing Gaslamp Fiction so it fits.

Rosemarie’s insides twisted in knots as she recalled the morning after the curtain fell on last month’s doomed play, The Lion Tamer’s Daughter. Upon learning that an angry mob had cornered Hector and mercilessly stoned the cowering lion to death, she’d cried herself to sleep. The next morning came too soon, and she woke to find her cat making a bother at the foot of her bed. So she took Achilles downstairs to let him out to do his business, and there, tacked to the backstage door, was the Journal of Amusements, its ink still wet, proclaiming in bold letters for all to read . . .

Wild Lion Runs Rampant on Paris Streets!
Surely as the night is dark and the clouds pour rain, surviving a performance
of ‘The Lion Tamer’s Daughter’ is what will separate the connoisseurs of theatrical
catastrophes from mere dilettantes for many moons to come.​

 

But that’s woke, a much more normally used word than woken.

(I feel like I may be missing a joke somewhere but I post anyway)

 

What I meant is that it is not, to my memory, in the fantasy I read.

 

I think there’s some sort of selection criteria going on—maybe YA, like I said? I checked a list of 2018 high fantasy novels, and hadn’t found one in present tense before I got bored after ten or fifteen Kindle previews.

 

As in, "get woke?" If by agreeing with an agenda you mean gaining awareness of social injustices, perceived or otherwise, then yes.

 

[post deleted as not worth the inevitable hassle]