dern

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See also: Dern

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈdɜː(ɹ)n/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n

Alternative forms

Etymology 1

From Middle English dern, derne, from Old English dyrne, dierne (“secret”), from Proto-West Germanic *darnī (“hidden, secret”).

Noun

dern (plural derns)

  1. (obsolete) A secret; secrecy.
  2. (obsolete) A secret place; hiding.
  3. (obsolete) An obscure language.
  4. (obsolete) Darkness; obscurity.
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle English dern, derne, from Old English dyrne, dierne (“hidden, secret, retired, obscure, remote, eluding detection, concealed, deceitful, evil, magical”), from Proto-West Germanic *darnī (“hidden, secret”).

Adjective

dern (comparative more dern, superlative most dern)

  1. (obsolete, dialectal) Hidden; secret; private.
    • 1659, Dr. H. More, Immortal, of the Soul:
      Now with their backs to the den's mouth they sit, / Yet shoulder not all light from the dern pit.
    • 1819, J. R. Drake, The Culprit Fay:
      Through dreary beds of tangled fern, / Through groves of nightshade dark and dern.

Etymology 3

From Middle English dernen, dærnen, from Old English dyrnan, diernan (“to keep secret, conceal, hide, restrain, repress, hide oneself”), from Proto-West Germanic *darnijan (“to conceal”), from *darnī (“hidden, secret”). Cognate with Old Saxon dernian (“to conceal”), German tarnen (“to camougflage, disguise”). See also darn, tarnish.

Verb

dern (third-person singular simple present derns, present participle derning, simple past and past participle derned)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To hide; secrete, as in a hole.
    • 1865, Hugh Miller, My schools and schoolmasters:
      He at length escaped them by derning himself in a fox-earth.
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To hide oneself; skulk.
    • 1584, Thomas Hudson, Judith:
      But look how soon they heard of Holoferne / Their courage quail'd, and they began to derne.
Related terms

Etymology 4

Uncertain.

Noun

dern (plural derns)

  1. (UK) A gatepost or doorpost.
    • 1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, Ch. XIV, How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings
      So I just put my eye between the wall and the dern of the gate, and I saw him come up to the back door

Anagrams

Lower Sorbian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *dьrnъ.

Noun

dern m inan (diminutive dernyšk)

  1. turf

Further reading

  • Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928) “dern”, in Słownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague: ОРЯС РАН, ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, 2008
  • Starosta, Manfred (1999) “dern”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag

Old Irish

Verb

·dern

  1. first-person singular present subjunctive prototonic ro-form of do·gní
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