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fen

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "fen"
Languages (23)
English
Catalan • Chuukese • Czech • Dalmatian • Faroese • Franco-Provençal • Friulian • Hungarian • Icelandic • Istriot • Lombard • Mandarin • Middle English • Old English • Old Norse • Polish • Serbo-Croatian • Spanish • Swedish • Turkish • Vietnamese • Welsh
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English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

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”).

Noun

fen (plural fens)

  1. A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline.
    Coordinate terms: moor, slough, water meadow
    Near-synonyms: marsh, swamp, bog, mire
    • 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).
Derived terms
Translations

See also

Etymology 2

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

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

Noun

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).
Translations

Etymology 3

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

Noun

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, 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, 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.
Coordinate terms
Derived terms

Etymology 4

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

Noun

fen (plural fens)

  1. (furry fandom, Internet slang, informal) A fennec fox.
    • 2018 December 30, @FENNERGY, Twitter‎:
      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, 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:
      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, Reddit:
      What a little tooty! BTW I really liked your post on information about fens! Thank you for getting more info out there❣️

Etymology 5

Compare fend.

Interjection

fen

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

Etymology 6

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

Noun

fen (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) A kind of mildew that grows on hops.
    • 1769, The Complete Farmer: Or, a General Dictionary of Husbandry‎, 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, 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, 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 […]

Anagrams

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Catalan

Pronunciation

Verb

fen

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

Chuukese

Adjective

fen

  1. holy

Synonyms

Derived terms

Adverb

fen

  1. past tense marker for verbs
  2. already

Czech

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Noun

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)
Declension
Declension of fen (hard masculine inanimate)
More information singular, plural ...

Etymology 2

Noun

fen

  1. genitive plural of fena

Further reading

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

Etymology

From Latin fīnitus. Compare Italian fino.

Adjective

fen (feminine faina)

  1. fine
  2. subtle
  3. pure

Faroese

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /feːn/
  • Rhymes: -eːn

Noun

fen n (genitive singular fens, plural fen)

  1. bog, quagmire

Declension

More information n3, singular ...

Derived terms

  • fenbressa
  • fendíki
  • fenjutur
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Franco-Provençal

Etymology

Inherited from Latin fēnum.

Noun

fen m (plural fens) (ORB, broad)

  1. hay

References

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

Friulian

Etymology

From Latin fēnum,from faenum.

Noun

fen m (plural fens)

  1. hay

Hungarian

Icelandic

Istriot

Lombard

Mandarin

Middle English

Old English

Old Norse

Polish

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Vietnamese

Welsh

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