Noun: fen
| Singular | fen |
| Plural | fens; fen |
Sample Sentences
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Near-synonyms: marsh, swamp, bog, mire
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Bogs are acidic, nutrient poor, and have a low species diversity, whereas fens are less acidic and have higher nutrient levels and species diversity. [1996, Geological Survey (U.S.), National Water Summary on Wetland Resources, →ISBN, page 214:]
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Bogs are acidic peatlands, while fens are non-acidic peatlands. [2019 February 19, Sincere Humphrey, Freshwater Microbiology, Scientific e-Resources, →ISBN, page 24:]
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[...] 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). [2023 September 26, Rick Cech, Guy Tudor, Butterflies of the East Coast: An Observer's Guide, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 15:]
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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. [1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:]
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Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: / England hath need of thee: she is a fen / Of stagnant waters […] [1807, William Wordsworth, "England, 1802," collected in Poems (1807)]
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In dark fens of the Dismal Swamp / The hunted Negro lay; … [1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp, from Poems on Slavery]
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As the sob of the breeze/Sweeps over the trees/And the mists lie low on the fen... [1887, “When the Night Wind Howls”, W. S. Gilbert (lyrics), Arthur Sullivan (music):]
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He was freezing to death in the flat mud of the Suffolk fens, too proud to go home without a catch. [1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:]
Nouns inflected like fen
whiting,
Munduruku,
Mundurucu,
sempai,
senpai,
saseng,
satang,
cunjevoi,
sansei,
Namboothiri,
somoni,
Sentinelese,
siopao,
shogun,
shinza,
Barakzai,
Chippewyan,
Diaguita,
shōgun,
thermal horsepower, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. 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”).
2. 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”). See: Middle English Nouns '
fen', Old English Nouns '
fenn', Dutch Nouns '
veen', German Nouns '
Fenn'.
Verbs referencing "fen"
Dutch Nouns
ven, Latin Nouns
fangus.