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”).
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”).
Meanings
A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline.
Bogs are acidic peatlands, while fens are non-acidic peatlands. 2019 February 19, Sincere Humphrey, Freshwater Microbiology, Scientific e-Resources, →ISBN, page 24:
[...] 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:
Near-synonyms: marsh, swamp, bog, mire
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:
(broadly) Any swamp or mire (especially with negative connotations).
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
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):
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)
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:
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:
sk bažina (type of wetland) · hu láp (type of wetland) · la lāma (type of wetland) · ga seascann (type of wetland) · fa لشاب (type of wetland) · ga moing (type of wetland) · tl tunlak (type of wetland) · cs bažina (type of wetland) · ja フェン (type of wetland) · de Moor (type of wetland) · pl torfowisko niskie (type of wetland) · pt paul (type of wetland) · nn fen (type of wetland) · mk мочу́риште (type of wetland) · gd boglach (type of wetland) · ca mollera (type of wetland) · sv kärr (type of wetland) · cy cors (type of wetland) · ca torbera baixa (type of wetland) · hu mocsár (type of wetland) · cs močál (type of wetland) · it cariceto (type of wetland) · pt turfeira (type of wetland) · es turbera (type of wetland) · eo marĉejo (type of wetland) · bg мочурище (type of wetland) · ga eanach (type of wetland) · cy ffen (type of wetland) · de Fenn (type of wetland) · tl tarlak (type of wetland) · sl barje (type of wetland) · et madalsoo (type of wetland) · fi letto (type of wetland) · pdt Somp (type of wetland) · sv fen (type of wetland) · tl tanlak (type of wetland) · de Flachmoor (type of wetland) · sk močiar (type of wetland) · ru боло́то (type of wetland) · de Nierdermoor (type of wetland)
A unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan.
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). 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:
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Translations (5)
zh 分 (unit of Chinese currency) · cs fen (unit of Chinese currency) · hu fen (unit of Chinese currency) · pl fen (unit of Chinese currency) · de Fen (unit of Chinese currency)
From fan, by analogy with men as the plural of man.
Meanings
(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.
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. 2016 September 3, lurkertype, “Worldcon 75 Chair Responds”, in File 770, Comments:
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. 1951 May 21, Winthrop Sargeant, “Through the Interstellar Looking Glass”, in Life, volume 30, number 21, page 127:
Clipping of fennec (“a small fox of the species Vulpes zerda, found in the Sahara (excluding the coast) and having distinctive oversized ears.”).
Meanings
(Internet, informal, slang) A fennec fox.
What a little tooty! BTW I really liked your post on information about fens! Thank you for getting more info out there❣️ 2025 January 24, u/Synpharia, “Sleepy Fen says I'm her bed now”, in r/fennecfoxes, Reddit:
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 2023 February 11, @alvocet, Twitter:
I always wondered why foxes go flat-ear mode whenever they are happy or screaming, very cute fen btw 2022 September 15, “Fem”, in r/foxes, Reddit:
Your fursona holding mine while she's arguing with some random person
Like you're cradling the little fen & she's screaming out threats 2018 December 30, @FENNERGY, Twitter:
From Middle English *vene, Kentish variant of *fine, from Old English fyne (“moisture, mold, mildew”), from Proto-Germanic *funiz, *fun- (“moisture, mold”); compare vinew.
Meanings
(obsolete, uncountable) A kind of mildew that grows on hops.
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. 1808, Thomas Potts, The British Farmer's Cyclopaedia or, Complete Agricultural Dictionary, Scatcherd and Letterman, page 96:
[…]whereby the ſtagnating ſap corrupts, and breeds mouldy fen, which often ſpoils whole tracts of, till then, flouriſhing hop-grounds. 1769, The Complete Farmer: Or, a General Dictionary of Husbandry, 2nd edition, page 339:
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[…] 1848, John Marius Wilson, editor, The Rural Cyclopedia, volume 2, A. Fullarton, page 698: