fen

Meaning

Noun

A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline.

Intj

Used in children's games to prevent or forestall another player's action; a check or bar.

Synonyms

marsh

bog

swamp

mire

morass

marshland

quagmire

wetland

moor

quag

slough

fenland

heath

slack

swampland

swampy ground

bayou

carr

fain

fell

mere

ooze

reservoir

swale

wetlands

Moor

Pronounced as (IPA)

/fɛn/

Etymology

From Middle English fen, fenne, from Old English fenn (“fen; marsh; mud; dirt”), Proto-West Germanic *fani, from Proto-Germanic *fanją, from Proto-Indo-European *pen- (“bog, mire”).
See also West Frisian fean, Dutch veen, German Fenn, Norwegian fen; also Middle Irish en (“water”), enach (“swamp”), Old Prussian pannean (“peat-bog”), Sanskrit पङ्क (paṅka, “marsh, mud, mire, slough”).