the whole world awakes/awakens from a long winter's sleep

Question

With the coming of spring, the whole world awakes/awakens from a long winter's sleep.

Hi,

I think both "awakes" and "awakens" both fit in the above and mean about the same, but I need your confirmation. Thanks.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

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Yes, those verbs are all confused in speaker's minds:

...the whole world wakes up /awakes / awakens / wakes / wakens from....

From the Am Heritage Dictionary:

The pairs wake, waken and awake, awaken have formed a bewildering array since the Middle English period. All four words have similar meanings, though there are some differences in use. Only wake is used in the sense “to be awake,” as in expressions like waking (not wakening) and sleeping, every waking hour. Wake is also more common than waken when used together with up, and awake and awaken never occur in this context: She woke up (rarely wakened up; never awakened up or awoke up). Some writers have suggested that waken should be used only transitively (as in The alarm wakened him) and awaken only intransitively (as in He awakened at dawn), but there is ample literary precedent for usages such as He wakened early and They did not awaken her. In figurative senses awake and awaken are more prevalent: With the governor's defeat the party awoke to the strength of the opposition to its position on abortion. The scent of the gardenias awakened my memory of his unexpected appearance that afternoon years ago.
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the whole world awakes/awakens from a long winter's sleep

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