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fen

 [fen]   Origin

fen

1   [fen]
noun
1.
low land covered wholly or partially with water; boggy land; a marsh.
2.
the Fens, a marshy region W and S of The Wash, in E England.
Origin:
before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Old Norse fen quagmire, Gothic fani mud, Dutch ven, German Fenn fen, bog

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Fen is always a great word to know.
So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
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fen

2   [fen]
noun, plural fen.
an aluminum coin and monetary unit of the People's Republic of China, the hundredth part of a yuan or the tenth part of a jiao.
Origin:
1905–10; < Chinese fēn
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
fen1 (fɛn)
 
—n
low-lying flat land that is marshy or artificially drained
 
[Old English fenn; related to Old High German fenna, Old Norse fen, Gothic fani clay, Sanskrit panka mud]

fen2 (fɛn)
 
—n , pl fen
a monetary unit of the People's Republic of China, worth one hundredth of a yuan
 
[from Mandarin Chinese]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

fen
O.E. fen, fenn "marsh, dirt, mud," from P.Gmc. *fanja- (cf. O.Fris. fenne, Du. veen, Ger. Fenn "marsh," Goth. fani "mud"); probably cognate with Gaul. anam "water," Skt. pankah "bog, marsh, mud," O.Prus. pannean "swampland." It., Sp. fango, O.Fr. fanc, Fr. fange "mud" are loan-words from Gmc. The native
EXPAND
L. word was limus or lutum.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

fen

type of bog (q.v.), especially a low-lying area, wholly or partly covered with water and dominated by grasslike plants, grasses, sedges, and reeds. In strict usage, a fen denotes an area in which the soil is organic (peaty) and alkaline rather than acid.

Learn more about fen with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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