fen

• IPA^(key): /fɛn/
• Rhymes: -ɛn

From Middle English fen, fenne, from Old English fenn (“fen; marsh; mud; dirt”), from Proto-Germanic *fanją (compare West Frisian fean, Dutch veen, German Fenn, Norwegian fen), from Proto-Indo-European *pen- (“bog, mire”). Compare 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.
   • 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [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; [...]

   • 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.

• bog
• everglade
• marsh
• swamp
• wetland

fen (plural fens)

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

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

fen pl (normally plural, singular fan)

1. (dated, fandom slang) fans; a plural form 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, Sargeant, Winthrop, “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.

• fenne

Compare fend.

fen

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

• ENF, nef

fen

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

fen

1. holy

• pin

fen

1. past tense marker for verbs
2. already

• IPA^(key): [ˈfɛn]
• Rhymes: -ɛn

fen m

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 quote)

fen

1. genitive plural of fena

• fen in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu

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

From Latin faenum, fēnum.

fen m (plural fens)

1. hay

• fenoli

• IPA^(key): [ˈfɛn]

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fen

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

• fenyeget

(Compound words):

• fenőkő
• fenőszíj
• ken-fen
• kikent-kifent

(Expressions):

• feni a fogát

fen (plural fenek)

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

• fen in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962.

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, fēnum.

fen

1. hay

fen

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

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

From Proto-Germanic *fanją.

fen n (genitive fens, plural fen)

1. bog, quagmire

   mýrar ok fen

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Borrowed from German Föhn.

fȇn m (Cyrillic spelling фе̑н)

1. hair dryer
2. (meteorology) foehn

fen

1. definite singular of fe

Borrowed from Arabic فَنّ‎ (fann).

fen (definite accusative fenni, plural fenler)

1. science

• ilim
• bilim