ferny

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English ferny, from Old English fearniġ, equivalent to fern +‎ -y.

Adjective[edit]

ferny (comparative fernier, superlative ferniest)

  1. Of, or pertaining to ferns. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
  2. Resembling or characteristic of a fern, in appearance, smell, etc.
    • 1942, Emily Carr, “Time”, in The Book of Small:
      All kinds of mosses grew by the stream—tufty, flat, ferny, and curly, green, yellow and a whitish kind that was tipped with scarlet sealing wax.
    • 1954, William Golding, “Chapter One”, in Lord of the Flies:
      Ralph had stopped smiling and was pointing into the lagoon. Something creamy lay among the ferny weeds.
  3. Covered in or filled with ferns; flanked or surrounded by ferns.
    • 1922, Katherine Mansfield, “At the Bay”, in The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield, Penguin, published 2007:
      And from the bush there came the sound of little streams flowing, quickly, lightly, slipping between the smooth stones, gushing into ferny basins and out again; and there was the splashing of big drops on large leaves []
    • 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:
      He skirted all stables, kennels, breweries, carpenters' shops, washhouses, places where they make tallow candles, kill oxen, forge horse-shoes, stitch jerkins—for the house was a town ringing with men at work at their various crafts—and gained the ferny path leading uphill through the park unseen.
    • 1939, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 1, in Anne of Ingleside[1]:
      We'll walk over the spring fields and through those ferny old woods.

Derived terms[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

fern +‎ -y

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈfɛrniː/, /ˈfɛːrniː/

Adjective[edit]

ferny

  1. (rare) Full of fern or bracken.

Descendants[edit]

  • English: ferny
  • Yola: vearnee, fearnee

References[edit]