fen - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

• IPA^(key): /fɛn/
• Rhymes: -ɛn

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”).

fen (plural fens)

1. A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline. (Contrast bog, marsh, swamp.)

   • 1996, Geological Survey (U.S.), National Water Summary on Wetland Resources, →ISBN, page 214:

     Bogs are acidic, nutrient poor, and have a low species diversity, whereas fens are less acidic and have higher nutrient levels and species diversity.

   • 2019 February 19, Sincere Humphrey, Freshwater Microbiology, Scientific e-Resources, →ISBN, page 24:

     Bogs are acidic peatlands, while fens are non-acidic peatlands.

   • 2023 September 26, Rick Cech, Guy Tudor, Butterflies of the East Coast: An Observer's Guide, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 15:

     [...] fens are alkaline. In fact, the precise acidity of a fen depends on the soil through which in-seeping waters have percolated. Northeastern fens vary from somewhat acidic to highly basic (Johnson, 1985, p. 27).

2. (loosely) Any swamp or mire (especially with negative connotations).

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:

     Caliban: As wicked dewe, as ere my mother bruſh'd / With Rauens feather from vnwholeſome Fen / Drop on you both : A Southweſt blow on yee, / And bliſter you all ore.

   • 1807, William Wordsworth, "England, 1802," collected in Poems (1807):

     Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: / England hath need of thee: she is a fen / Of stagnant waters […]

   • 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp, from Poems on Slavery:

     In dark fens of the Dismal Swamp / The hunted Negro lay; [...]

   • 1887, “When the Night Wind Howls”, W. S. Gilbert (lyrics), Arthur Sullivan (music):

     As the sob of the breeze/Sweeps over the trees/And the mists lie low on the fen...

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     He was freezing to death in the flat mud of the Suffolk fens, too proud to go home without a catch.

From Chinese 分 (fēn). Doublet of hoon and fan.

fen (plural fen or fens)

2. A unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan.

   • 1994, Ronald David Schwartz, “[Martial Law and After] Symbolic competition”, in Circle of Protest: Political Ritual in the Tibetan Uprising, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, published 1996, →ISBN, page 184:

     One poster, which appeared on the Barkhor on 20 May, ridiculed the way neighbourhood committees were recruiting participants: “We paid 30 fen for one stone, but you hire people for 30 yuan for the picnic in the Norbulingka” (“30 fen” — one hundred fen is one yuan — is a joking reference to Chinese accusations that Tibetans were paid 30 fen by splittists for each stone thrown on 1 October 1987).

From fan, by analogy with men as the plural of man.

fen

1. (fandom slang) a plural of fan used by enthusiasts of science fiction, fantasy, and anime, partly from whimsy and partly to distinguish themselves from fans of sport, etc.

   • 1951 May 21, Winthrop Sargeant, “Through the Interstellar Looking Glass”, in Life‎^[1], volume 30, number 21, page 127:

     Sad to relate, some of the European delegates were probably insurgents rather than true fen. […] But the Europeans could be counted on to take the long view, and many of them would probably turn out to be real fen and fenne after all.

   • 2016 September 3, lurkertype, “Worldcon 75 Chair Responds”, in File 770‎^[2], Comments:

     So I’m glad the attached hotel block is entirely reserved for disabled fen! Traveling on mass transit is tiring even when everything’s up to code.

• fenne

Clipping of fennec (“a small fox of the species Vulpes zerda, found in the Sahara (excluding the coast) and having distinctive oversized ears.”).

fen (plural fens)

1. (furry fandom, Internet slang, informal) A fennec fox.

   • 2018 December 30, @FENNERGY, Twitter‎^[3]:

     Your fursona holding mine while she's arguing with some random person

     Like you're cradling the little fen & she's screaming out threats

   • 2022 September 15, “Fem”, in r/foxes‎^[4], Reddit:

     I always wondered why foxes go flat-ear mode whenever they are happy or screaming, very cute fen btw

   • 2023 February 11, @alvocet, Twitter‎^[5]:

     Just because an animal doesnt fight when you pet them doesn't mean they like it. If a fen's ears are back like that leave them the fuck alone

   • 2025 January 24, u/Synpharia, “Sleepy Fen says I'm her bed now”, in r/fennecfoxes‎^[6], Reddit:

     What a little tooty! BTW I really liked your post on information about fens! Thank you for getting more info out there❣️

Compare fend.

fen

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

From Middle English *vene, Kentish variant of *fine, from Old English fyne (“moisture, mold, mildew”), from Proto-Germanic *funiz, *fun- (“moisture, mold”); compare vinew.

fen (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) A kind of mildew that grows on hops.

   • 1769, The Complete Farmer: Or, a General Dictionary of Husbandry‎^[7], 2nd edition, page 339:

     […] whereby the ſtagnating ſap corrupts, and breeds mouldy fen, which often ſpoils whole tracts of, till then, flouriſhing hop-grounds.

   • 1808, Thomas Potts, The British Farmer's Cyclopaedia or, Complete Agricultural Dictionary‎^[8], Scatcherd and Letterman, page 96:

     Among these are reckoned the wire worm; the flea, and the fly; the fen or mould; the mildew ; and what are usually called fire blasts.

   • 1848, John Marius Wilson, editor, The Rural Cyclopedia‎^[9], volume 2, A. Fullarton, page 698:

     The mould, the fen, or the mouldy-fen, prevails more on hop-grounds which are low, moist, and sheltered, than on such as are high, dry, and open […]

• ENF, nef

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈfɛn]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈfən]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈfen]

fen

1. inflection of fendre:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

fen

1. holy

• pin

• Raninfen ("the holy day", Sunday)

fen

1. past tense marker for verbs
2. already

• IPA^(key): [ˈfɛn]
• Rhymes: -ɛn

fen m inan

1. fen (unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan)

   • 1962, Časopis Národního muzea, volume 131, page 165:

     Čínská poštovní správa v roce 1961 vydala ke Dni armády, tj. k 1. srpnu 1961 dvě známky, a to v hodnotách 8 fenů a 10 fenů […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

fen

1. genitive plural of fena

• “fen”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)

From Latin fīnitus. Compare Italian fino.

fen (feminine faina)

1. fine
2. subtle
3. pure

From Old Norse fen, from Proto-Germanic *fanją.

• IPA^(key): /feːn/
• Rhymes: -eːn

fen n (genitive singular fens, plural fen)

1. bog, quagmire

• fenbressa
• fendíki
• fenjutur

Inherited from Latin fēnum.

fen m (plural fens) (ORB, broad)

1. hay

• foin in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• fen in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

From Latin fēnum,from faenum.

fen m (plural fens)

1. hay

• fenoli

• IPA^(key): [ˈfɛn]
• Hyphenation: fen
• Rhymes: -ɛn

From Proto-Ugric *pänV-, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *pänɜ (“grindstone; grind”).^[1]

fen

1. (transitive) to sharpen, to whet, to hone

   Synonyms: köszörül, élesít, élez

2. (dialectal) to rub, to smear

   Synonyms: ken, dörgöl

(Compound words):

(Expressions):

fen (plural fenek)

2. fen (unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan)

   Holonyms: jüan, zsenminpi

   Meronym: csiao

• (to whet): fen in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

From Old Norse fen, from Proto-Germanic *fanją.

• IPA^(key): /fɛːn/
• Rhymes: -ɛːn

fen n (genitive singular fens, nominative plural fen)

1. fen, marsh, morass

From Latin faenum.

fen

1. hay

Akin to Italian fieno, from Latin fenum.

fen

1. hay

fen

1. Nonstandard spelling of fēn.
2. Nonstandard spelling of fén.
3. Nonstandard spelling of fěn.
4. Nonstandard spelling of fèn.

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

• fenne, ven

From Old English fenn; from Proto-West Germanic *fani, from Proto-Germanic *fanją. The "dung" sense is influenced by Old French fien.

• IPA^(key): /fɛn/

fen (plural fennes)

1. fen, bog, swamp
2. dirt, muddiness
3. dung, feces
4. (rare) rubbish, refuse
5. (rare) quagmire, lure

• English: fen
• Scots: fen
• Yola: ven

• “fen, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “fen, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

fen m or n

1. Alternative form of fenn

From Proto-Germanic *fanją.

fen n (genitive fens, plural fen)

1. fen, bog, quagmire

   mýrar ok fen

   bogs and fens

• Icelandic: fen
• Faroese: fen
• Norwegian: fen
• Danish: fen

• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “fen”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛn/
• Rhymes: -ɛn
• Syllabification: fen

Borrowed from German Föhn, from Old High German phonno, from Vulgar Latin *faōnius, from Latin Favōnius.

fen m inan

1. (meteorology) foehn (warm dry wind blowing down the northern sides of the Alps)
2. (meteorology) foehn (any similar wind)

Borrowed from Chinese 分.

fen m inan

1. fen (unit of Chinese currency)

(adjective):

• fen in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from German Föhn.

fȇn m (Cyrillic spelling фе̑н)

1. hair dryer
2. (meteorology) foehn

fen

1. definite singular of fe

From Ottoman Turkish فن (fen, “kind, variety; art, science”), from Arabic فَنّ (fann), ultimately from Persian پند (pand, “knack, trick”).

• IPA^(key): /fæn/

fen (definite accusative fenni, plural fenler or (archaic) fünun)

1. (archaic) technic

   Synonym: fen

2. (dated) science

   Synonym: bilim

• ilim
• bilim

• fennî (“scientific, technical”)
• darülfünun (“university”)

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “fen”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “فن”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[10], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 1397