fern
noun
- type of plant
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /fɜːn/ / /fɝːn/ / /fɝn/ / [fɘːn]
name
Etymology: From fern; in the case of the surname, it was given to someone who lived in a place where there was an abundance of these plants.
- A female given name.
“"Charlotte is the best storyteller I ever heard," said Fern, poking her dish towel into a cereal bowl.”
- A topographic surname.
noun
Etymology: 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 (par^əna), Ashkun pār (“leaf”), Kamkata-viri por, přor, Prasuni parëg (“leaf”), Sanskrit पर्ण (parṇá, “wing”).
- 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.”