fen

Meaning

Noun

• A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline.
• A unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan.
• Fans;
• A kind of mildew that grows on hops.

Origin

• From Middle English fen, fenne, from Old English fenn, Proto-West Germanic *fani, from Proto-Germanic *fanją (compare West Frisian fean, Dutch veen, German Fenn, Norwegian fen), from Proto-Indo-European *pen-. Compare Middle Irish en, enach, Old Prussian pannean, Sanskrit पङ्क.
• From fan, by analogy with men as the plural of man.
• Compare fend.
• From Middle English *vene, Kentish variant of *fine, from Old English fyne, from Proto-Germanic *funiz, *fun-; compare vinew.