fern

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

fern, adv. 

 Long ago.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

fern, a. [AS. fyrn.].

 Ancient; old. [Obs.] “Pilgrimages to . . . ferne halwes.” [saints].  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

fern, n. [AS. fearn; akin to D. varen, G. farn, farnkraut; cf. Skr. par\'c9a wing, feather, leaf, sort of plant, or Lith. papartis fern.].

 An order of cryptogamous plants, the Filices, which have their fructification on the back of the fronds or leaves. They are usually found in humid soil, sometimes grow epiphytically on trees, and in tropical climates often attain a gigantic size.  [1913 Webster]
" The plants are asexual, and bear clustered sporangia, containing minute spores, which germinate and form prothalli, on which are borne the true organs of reproduction. The brake or bracken, the maidenhair, and the polypody are all well known ferns."  [1913 Webster]

Christmas fern. See under Christmas. -- Climbing fern (Bot.), a delicate North American fern (Lygodium palmatum), which climbs several feet high over bushes, etc., and is much sought for purposes of decoration. -- Fern owl. (Zoöl.) (a) The European goatsucker. (b) The short-eared owl. [Prov. Eng.] -- Fern shaw, a fern thicket. [Eng.] R. Browning.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

fern, n. (pl. same or ferns) any flowerless plant of the order Filicales, reproducing by spores and usu. having feathery fronds.

Derivative

fernery n. (pl. -ies). fernless adj. ferny adj.

Etymology

OE fearn f. WG

THESAURUS

fern

Calamites, Cycadofilicales, Filicales, Selaginellaceae, Sigillaria, algae, autophyte, bean, bracken, brown algae, calamite, climber, conferva, confervoid, creeper, cycadofilicales, diatom, equisetum, filicoids, fruits and vegetables, fucus, fungus, grapevine, green algae, gulfweed, herb, heterophyte, ivy, kelp, legume, lentil, lepidodendrids, lepidodendroids, liana, lichen, liverwort, mold, moss, mushroom, parasite, parasitic plant, pea, perthophyte, phytoplankton, planktonic algae, plant families, puffball, pulse, red algae, rockweed, rust, saprophyte, sargasso, sargassum, sea lentil, sea moss, sea wrack, seaweed, smut, succulent, toadstool, vetch, vine, wort, wrack

ROGET THESAURUS

fern

Vegetable

N vegetable, vegetable kingdom, flora, verdure, plant, tree, shrub, bush, creeper, herb, herbage, grass, annual, perennial, biennial, triennial, exotic, timber, forest, wood, woodlands, timberland, hurst, frith, holt, weald, park, chase, greenwood, brake, grove, copse, coppice, bocage, tope, clump of trees, thicket, spinet, spinney, underwood, brushwood, scrub, boscage, bosk, ceja, chaparal, motte, arboretum, bush, jungle, prairie, heath, heather, fern, bracken, furze, gorse, whin, grass, turf, pasture, pasturage, turbary, sedge, rush, weed, fungus, mushroom, toadstool, lichen, moss, conferva, mold, growth, alfalfa, alfilaria, banyan, blow, blowth, floret, petiole, pin grass, timothy, yam, yew, zinnia, foliage, branch, bough, ramage, stem, tigella, spray, leaf, flower, blossom, bine, flowering plant, timber tree, fruit tree, pulse, legume, vegetable, vegetal, vegetive, vegitous, herbaceous, herbal, botanic, sylvan, silvan, arborary, arboreous, arborescent, arborical, woody, grassy, verdant, verdurous, floral, mossy, lignous, ligneous, wooden, leguminous, vosky, cespitose, turf-like, turfy, endogenous, exogenous, green-robed senators of mighty woods, this is the forest primeval.