dern

• dearn, darn

From Middle English dern, derne, from Old English dyrne, dierne (“secret”), from Proto-Germanic *darniją (“secret”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“to hold, hold tight, support”). See below.

dern (plural derns)

1. (obsolete) A secret; secrecy.
2. (obsolete) A secret place; hiding.
3. (obsolete) An obscure language.
4. (obsolete) Darkness; obscurity.

• in dern

From Middle English dern, derne, from Old English dyrne, dierne (“hidden, secret, retired, obscure, remote, eluding detection, concealed, deceitful, evil, magical”), from Proto-Germanic *darnijaz (“hidden, masked”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“to hold, hold tight, support”). Cognate with Old Frisian dern, dren (“hidden, secret”), Old Saxon derni (“hidden, secret”), Old High German tarni (“hidden”).

dern (comparative more dern, superlative most dern)

1. (obsolete) 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.

From Middle English dernen, dærnen, from Old English dyrnan, diernan (“to keep secret, conceal, hide, restrain, repress, hide oneself”), from Proto-Germanic *darnijaną (“to conceal”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“to hold, hold tight, support”). Cognate with Old Saxon dernian (“to conceal”), German tarnen (“to camougflage, disguise”). See also darn, tarnish.

dern (third-person singular simple present derns, present participle derning, simple past and past participle derned)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To hide; secrete, as in a hole.
   • H. Miller

     He at length escaped them by derning himself in a fox-earth.

2. (intransitive, obsolete) To hide oneself; skulk.
   • T. Hudson

     But look how soon they heard of Holoferne / Their courage quail'd, and they began to derne.

Uncertain.

dern (plural derns)

1. (Britain) A gatepost or doorpost.
   • Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, Ch. XIV, How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings

     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 […]

• NERD, nerd, rend

·dern

1. first-person singular present subjunctive prototonic ro-form of do·gní