fenとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From 中期英語 fen, fenne, from 古期英語 fenn (“fen; marsh; mud; dirt”), Proto-West Germanic *fani, from Proto-Germanic *fanją, from Proto-Indo-European *pen- (“bog, mire”).

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”).

名詞

fen (plural fens)

1. A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline.

   Coordinate terms: moor, slough, water meadow

   Near-synonyms: marsh, swamp, bog, mire

   • 1996, Geological Survey (U.S.), National Water Summary on Wetland Resources, →ISBN, page 214:

     Bogs are acidic, nutrient poor, and have a low species diversity, whereas fens are less acidic and have higher nutrient levels and species diversity.

   • 2019 February 19, Sincere Humphrey, Freshwater Microbiology, Scientific e-Resources, →ISBN, page 24:

     Bogs are acidic peatlands, while fens are non-acidic peatlands.

   • 2023 September 26, Rick Cech, Guy Tudor, Butterflies of the East Coast: An Observer's Guide, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 15:

     [...] 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).

2. (loosely) Any swamp or mire (especially with negative connotations).
   • 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:

     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; [...]

   • 1887, “When the Night Wind Howls”, W. S. Gilbert (lyrics), Arthur Sullivan (music):

     As the sob of the breeze/Sweeps over the trees/And the mists lie low on the fen...

   • 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.

派生語

参考

語源 2

From Chinese 分 (fēn). Doublet of hoon and fan.

名詞

fen (plural fen or fens)

1. A unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan.
   • 1994, Ronald David Schwartz, “[Martial Law and After] Symbolic competition”, in Circle of Protest: Political Ritual in the Tibetan Uprising, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, published 1996, →ISBN, page 184:

     One poster, which appeared on the Barkhor on 20 May, ridiculed the way neighbourhood committees were recruiting participants: “We paid 30 fen for one stone, but you hire people for 30 yuan for the picnic in the Norbulingka” (“30 fen” — one hundred fen is one yuan — is a joking reference to Chinese accusations that Tibetans were paid 30 fen by splittists for each stone thrown on 1 October 1987).

語源 3

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

名詞

fen

1. (fandom slang) a plural of fan 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, Winthrop Sargeant, “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.

等位語

• fenne

派生語

語源 4

Clipping of fennec (“a small fox of the species Vulpes zerda, found in the Sahara (excluding the coast) and having distinctive oversized ears.”).

名詞

fen (plural fens)

1. (furry fandom, Internet slang, informal) A fennec fox.
   • 2018 December 30, @FENNERGY, Twitter‎:

     Your fursona holding mine while she's arguing with some random person
     
     Like you're cradling the little fen & she's screaming out threats

   • 2022 September 15, “Fem”, in r/foxes‎, Reddit:

     I always wondered why foxes go flat-ear mode whenever they are happy or screaming, very cute fen btw

   • 2023 February 11, @alvocet, Twitter‎:

     Just because an animal doesnt fight when you pet them doesn't mean they like it. If a fen's ears are back like that leave them the fuck alone

   • 2025 January 24, u/Synpharia, “Sleepy Fen says I'm her bed now”, in r/fennecfoxes‎, Reddit:

     What a little tooty! BTW I really liked your post on information about fens! Thank you for getting more info out there❣️

語源 5

Compare fend.

間投詞

fen

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

語源 6

From 中期英語 *vene, Kentish variant of *fine, from 古期英語 fyne (“moisture, mold, mildew”), from Proto-Germanic *funiz, *fun- (“moisture, mold”); compare vinew.

名詞

fen (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) A kind of mildew that grows on hops.
   • 1769, The Complete Farmer: Or, a General Dictionary of Husbandry‎, 2nd edition, page 339:

     […] whereby the ſtagnating ſap corrupts, and breeds mouldy fen, which often ſpoils whole tracts of, till then, flouriſhing hop-grounds.

   • 1808, Thomas Potts, The British Farmer's Cyclopaedia or, Complete Agricultural Dictionary‎, Scatcherd and Letterman, page 96:

     Among these are reckoned the wire worm; the flea, and the fly; the fen or mould; the mildew ; and what are usually called fire blasts.

   • 1848, John Marius Wilson, editor, The Rural Cyclopedia‎, volume 2, A. Fullarton, page 698:

     The mould, the fen, or the mouldy-fen, prevails more on hop-grounds which are low, moist, and sheltered, than on such as are high, dry, and open […]

アナグラム

• ENF, nef

語源

From 古期英語 fenn; from Proto-West Germanic *fani, from Proto-Germanic *fanją. The "dung" sense is influenced by Old French fien.

発音

• IPA: /fɛn/

名詞

fen (plural fennes)

1. fen, bog, swamp
2. dirt, muddiness
3. dung, feces
4. (rare) rubbish, refuse
5. (rare) quagmire, lure

派生した語

• English: fen
• Scots: fen
• Yola: ven

参照

• “fen, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “fen, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.