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Origin and history of fern

fern(n.)

Old English fearn "fern," from Proto-Germanic *farno- (source also of Old Saxon farn, Middle Dutch vaern, Dutch varen, Old High German farn, German Farn). Watkins and other sources propose an etymology on the notion of "having feathery fronds" from a possible PIE *por-no- "feather, wing" (source also of Sanskrit parnam "feather, leaf;" Lithuanian papartis "fern;" Russian paporot'; Greek pteris "fern"), a proposed suffixed form of the root *per- (2) "to lead, pass over," on the notion of "that which carries a bird in flight."

The plant's ability to appear as if from nothing accounts for the ancient belief that fern seeds conferred invisibility (1590s). Filicology "science or study of ferns" (1848) is from Latin filix "fern."

Entries linking to fern

pteridology(n.)

"the study of ferns as a branch of botany," 1850, with -logy + from Greek pteris "fern, bracken," probably originally "feather plant," so called for the form of the leaves, and related to pteron "wing" (from PIE root *pet- "to rush, to fly"). Compare fern, also supposed to be descended from a root meaning "feather." Related: Pteridologist (1845).

*per-(2)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to lead, pass over." A verbal root associated with *per- (1), which forms prepositions and preverbs with the basic meaning "forward, through; in front of, before," etc.

It might form all or part of: aporia; asportation; comport; deport; disport; emporium; Euphrates; export; fare; farewell; fartlek; Ferdinand; fere; fern; ferry; firth; fjord; ford; Fuhrer; gaberdine; import; important; importune; opportune; opportunity; passport; porch; pore (n.) "minute opening;" port (n.1) "harbor;" port (n.2) "gateway, entrance;" port (n.3) "bearing, mien;" port (v.) "to carry;" portable; portage; portal; portcullis; porter (n.1) "person who carries;" porter (n.2) "doorkeeper, janitor;" portfolio; portico; portiere; purport; practical; rapport; report; sport; support; transport; warfare; wayfarer; welfare.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit parayati "carries over;" Greek poros "journey, passage, way," peirein "to pierce, pass through, run through;" Latin portare "to carry," porta "gate, door," portus "port, harbor," originally "entrance, passage," peritus "experienced;" Avestan peretush "passage, ford, bridge;" Armenian hordan "go forward;" Old Welsh rit, Welsh rhyd "ford;" Old Church Slavonic pariti "to fly;" Old English faran "to go, journey," Old Norse fjörðr "inlet, estuary."

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    brake
    "thicket; place overgrown with bushes, brambles, or brushwood," mid-15c., originally "fern-brake, thicket of fern," perhaps...Or, more likely, from Middle English brake "fern" (c. 1300), from Old Norse (compare Swedish bräken, Danish bregne), and...
    firn
    Middle English retained fern "long ago, formerly, of old," fern-days "days of old, former year, a year past."...
    break
    Old English brecan "to divide solid matter violently into parts or fragments; to injure, violate (a promise, etc.), destroy, curtail; to break into, rush into; to burst forth, spring out; to subdue, tame" (class IV strong verb; past tense bræc, past participle brocen), from Proto
    baker
    Old English bæcere "baker, one who bakes (especially bread)," agent noun from bacan "to bake" (see bake (v.)). Cognate with Dutch bakker, German Bäcker, Becker. In the Middle Ages, the craft had two divisions, braun-bakeres and whit-bakeres. White bakers shall bake no hors brede
    image
    c. 1200, "piece of statuary; artificial representation that looks like a person or thing," from Old French image "image, likeness; figure, drawing, portrait; reflection; statue," earlier imagene (11c.), from Latin imaginem (nominative imago) "copy, imitation, likeness; statue, pi
    tribe
    mid-13c., "one of the twelve divisions of the ancient Hebrews," from Old French tribu or directly from Latin tribus "one of the three political/ethnic divisions of the original Roman state" (Tites, Ramnes, and Luceres, corresponding, perhaps, to the Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans
    boisterous
    late 15c., boistreous, "rough, coarse," an unexplained alteration of Middle English boistous (c. 1300) "rough, coarse, clumsy, violent," which itself is of unknown origin, perhaps from Anglo-French bustous "rough (road)," itself perhaps from Old French boisteos "curved, lame; une
    blurb
    used by U.S. scholar Brander Matthews in 1906 in "American Character;" popularized 1907 by U.S. humorist Frank Gelett Burgess. Originally mocking excessive praise printed on book jackets, and probably derisively imitative. Gelett Burgess ... then entertained the guests with some
    discourse
    late 14c., "process of understanding, reasoning, thought," from French discours, from Latin discursus "a running about," in Late Latin "conversation," in Medieval Latin "reasoning," noun use of past participle of discurrere "to run about, run to and fro, hasten," in Late Latin "t
    eclectic
    1680s, "not confined to or following any one model or system," originally in reference to ancient philosophers who selected doctrines from every system; from French eclectique (1650s), from Greek eklektikos "selective," literally "picking out," from eklektos "selected," from ekle

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