heywriters:

Okay since two people in replies say it is a word, I want to know where that definition of “boughten” is used. I’ve never heard or read itanywhereexcept misused in speech as a past participle of “buy.”

Is its other use regional? Archaic? Newly coined?

peredobella:

Who says boughten?

heywriters:

“boughten” is not a word. “bought” is the past tense of “buy.”

@heywriters​

According to dictionary.com, it’s actually a dialect variant of the word ‘bought’. It’s like ‘ain’t’. Ain’t isn’t a word. Isn’t is. But ain’t is a North American colloquial term that is generally accepted, so much so that typing it up on Tumblr doesn’t prompt the red underline. (Still not a word, though. It’s just a variant.) Boughten is in the same category (in that it’s North American colloquial term), but it’s a newer variant, so it’s not generally accepted (yet?) and is therefore still underlined in red.