fern

nounattested in dialogue

United Kingdom//fɜːn//
Canada//fɝn//
Australia//fɜːn//
Australia/[fɘːn]/
//fɛːrn//

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.

noun

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.
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.

Etymology

From Middle English fern, from Old English fearn, from Proto-West Germanic *farn, from Proto-Germanic *farnaz (“fern”), from Proto-Indo-European *pornóm (“feather, wing; fern, leaf”), from *p(t)erH- (“fern”). Cognates Cognate with Scots fairn (“fern”), North Frisian farne (“fern”), West Frisian fear (“fern”), Dutch varen (“fern”), German Farn, Farm (“fern”), Luxembourgish Far (“fern”); also Breton raden (“fern”), Cornish reden (“ferns; brackens”), Welsh rhedyn (“ferns; brackens”), Latvian paparde (“fern; bracken”), spārns (“wing”), Lithuanian spar̃nas (“wing”), Bulgarian and Macedonian папрат (paprat, “fern”), Czech kapraď (“fern”), Polish paproć (“fern”), Russian па́пороть (páporotʹ), па́поротник (páporotnik, “fern”), Serbo-Croatian па̏пра̄т, pȁprāt (“fern”), Slovak papraď (“fern”), Slovene praprot (“fern”), Ukrainian па́пороть (páporotʹ, “fern”), Central Kurdish پەڕ (perr, “feather”), Persian پر (par, “feather; wing; leaf”), Ashkun pār (“leaf”), Kamkata-viri por, přor (“leaf”), Prasuni parëg (“leaf”), Sanskrit पर्ण (parṇá, “wing; leaf”).

Forms

plural: ferns

Ferdinand · A male given name from the Germanic languages, best known for…Fergus · A male given name from Scottish Gaelic.Ferguson · A surname transferred from the given name originating in…

fern · Any of a group of some twenty thousand species of vascular plants classified in the division Pteridophyta that lack seeds and reproduce by shedding…

Fern · A female given name.Fernando · A male given name from Spanish; diminutive forms Fer, Nando.ferocious · Marked by extreme and violent energy.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.