fern - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

A fern.

From Middle English fern, from Old English fearn, from Proto-West Germanic *farn, from Proto-Indo-European *pornóm (“feather, wing; fern, leaf”), from *p(t)erH- (“fern”).

Cognate with Scots fairn (“fern”), West Frisian fear (“fern”), Dutch varen (“fern”), German Farn, Farm (“fern”), Luxembourgish Far (“fern”), Lithuanian spar̃nas (“wing”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬥𐬀 (parəna), Ashkun pār (“leaf”), Kamkata-viri por, přor, Prasuni parëg (“leaf”), Sanskrit पर्ण (parṇá, “wing”).

fern (plural ferns)

  1. Any of a group of some twenty thousand species of vascular plants classified in the division Pteridophyta that lack seeds and reproduce by shedding spores to initiate an alternation of generations.
    • 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 103:
      Beyond here the tides are not felt, and we now entered upon a district of elevated forest, with a finer vegetation. Large trees stretch out their arms across the stream, and the steep, earthy banks are clothed with ferns and zingiberaceous plants.

plant

  1. ^ Dobson, E[ric] J. (1957), English pronunciation 1500-1700‎[1], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 8, page 472: “Fern is recorded with ĕ by Levins (beside ę̄), Gil (1621 edition), Poole, Coles, and Brown; with ę̄ by Levins (beside ĕ) and Gil (1619 edition).”

From Middle High German verren, from Old High German ferrana, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *ferrai, same as English far.

fern (strong nominative masculine singular ferner, comparative ferner, superlative am fernsten)

  1. remote
  2. far away

Comparative forms of fern

Superlative forms of fern

fern [_with_ genitive; or with dative]

  1. (higher register) far away from something
    Fern des Landes / dem Land, in dem sie geboren wurde
    Far away from the land in which she was born

From the root fer-. Compare tvennur, þrennur.

fern

  1. four (used when counting singular nouns, pluralia tantum or groupings (especially pairs) of items, or when the item counted is missing from the sentence or separated by the preposition af (“of”))
    fernir skór ― four pairs of shoes
    fernir tónleikar ― four concerts
    Þetta má gera á fernan hátt. ― This can be done in four ways.
    Það er fernt sem mig vantar. ― There are four [things] that I need.
    Ég vil fá fernt af öllu. ― I want four of everything.

From Old English fearn, from Proto-West Germanic *farn.

fern (plural ferns)

  1. fern

From Proto-Celtic *wernā (compare Welsh gwern). Cognate with Old Armenian գերան (geran).

fern f (genitive fernae, nominative plural ferna)

  1. alder
  2. shield (made of alder wood)
  3. pole, stake
  4. the letter F

Feminine ā-stem

| | singular | dual | plural | | | ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | nominative | fernL | feirnL | fernaH | | vocative | fernL | feirnL | fernaH | | accusative | feirnN | feirnL | fernaH | | genitive | fernaeH | fernL | fernN | | dative | feirnL | fernaib | fernaib |

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

Mutation of fern

radical lenition nasalization
fern ḟern fernpronounced with /β̃ʲ-/

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

fern m

  1. alternative form of infern