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Fern vs Dern - What's the difference?

fern | dern |

As nouns the difference between fern and dern

is that fern is 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 while dern is a secret; secrecy.

As a proper noun Fern

is {{given name|female}} from the fern plant.

As an adjective dern is

hidden; secret; private.

As a verb dern is

to hide; secrete, as in a hole.

fern

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • 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.

    • Synonyms

    * (Pteridophyta) (archaic)

    Derived terms

    * (hydrozoan skeletons) * (in genus Asparagus ) * ) * ferny * male fern * (in genus Comptonia ) * tree fern

    See also

    * bracken

    External links

    * ("fern" on Wikipedia)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    dern

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) dern, derne, from (etyl) dyrne, . See below.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A secret; secrecy.
  • A secret place; hiding.
  • An obscure language.
  • Darkness; obscurity.
    • Derived terms
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) dern, derne, from (etyl) dyrne, .

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Hidden; secret; private.
  • * Dr. H. More, Immortal, of the Soul
    • Now with their backs to the den's mouth they sit, / Yet shoulder not all light from the dern pit.
  • * J. R. Drake, Culprit Fay
    • Through dreary beds of tangled fern, / Through groves of nightshade dark and dern .

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) dernen, .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To hide; secrete, as in a hole.
    • He at length escaped them by derning himself in a fox-earth. ? H. Miller.
  • To hide oneself; skulk.
    • But look how soon they heard of Holoferne / Their courage quail'd, and they began to derne . ? T. Hudson.

    Etymology 4

    Uncertain.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (UK, dialect) A gatepost or doorpost.
    • So I just put my eye between the wall and the dern of the gate, and I saw him come up to the back door''.., Charles Kingsley, ''Westward Ho! , Ch. XIV, How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings.
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