fern

Meaning

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.

Concepts

fern

bracken

brake

plant

filix

Pteridophyte

fern root

fiddlehead

fern ally

rasp fern

bedsheet

sheet

Pronounced as (IPA)

/fɜːn/

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 West Frisian fear, Dutch varen, German Farn, Lithuanian spar̃nas, Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬥𐬀 (par^əna), Ashkun pār, Kamkata-viri por, přor, Prasuni parëg, Sanskrit पर्ण (parṇá).