herkend

Herkend is a Dutch word that functions as the past participle of the verb herkennen, meaning to recognize or identify. It is used to describe something that has been recognized, identified, or acknowledged, and it also forms part of the tense system in combination with an auxiliary verb.

In practice, recognized is typically expressed with hebben in the perfect tense: Ik heb haar herkend. This use covers identifying someone in a previous encounter or recognizing a person, an object, or a situation from memory or prior knowledge. The passive voice is also common: De verdachte is door de getuigen herkend, meaning that the suspect has been recognized by the witnesses. Additionally, herkend can appear attributively as an adjective, as in een herkende verdachte (the recognized/identified suspect), although more colloquial phrasing can occur depending on context.

Etymologically, herkend derives from het prefix her- combined with kennen (to know). The prefix often signals recognition or identification in Dutch, and its usage is distinctive from erkenning (recognition or acknowledgment) and erkennen (to acknowledge or admit) which are related but form different words and meanings.

In usage notes, herkennen and herkend are common in journalism, police reports, and everyday speech when referring to the act or result of recognizing someone or something. It is not a specialized technical term, but it appears most often in contexts involving identification, memory-based recognition, or verification processes.

See also: herkennen, erkenning, herkennen.