Etymology: Old English fearn strong neuter = Middle Dutch væren (Dutch varen), Old High German farn, farm (Middle High German varn, varm, modern German farn) neuter and masculine (not recorded in Old Norse, but compare Swedish dialect fänne < Old Norse *ferne) < Germanic *farno- < Old Aryan *porno-, whence Sanskrit parna neuter, wing, feather, leaf. The primitive meaning of the word is doubtless ‘feather’; for the transferred application compare Greek πτερόν feather, πτερίς fern.

Etymology: perhaps representing Old English firen, Old Norse firn plural, originally a crime, monstrous thing; for the sense compare modern Icelandic firní ‘a great deal, a lot’ (Vigfusson).

Etymology: Middle English verne, perhaps < viron n. to go round, < French vironner, < viron circuit.

Etymology: Perhaps representing two different but synonymous formations (from different ablaut-grades of the same root). The Old English fyrn with y < u, an -i stem that has passed into the -o declension, seems to be a peculiarly English formation (perhaps in origin a noun, as the form with prefixed ge may suggest), cognate with Old Saxon furn, forn adverb, formerly (also in combination an furndagon = Old English on fyrndagum), Old High German forn (Middle High German vorn) formerly, Old Norse forn adjective, ancient (Swedish forn). The sense ‘of last year’, though not recorded before the Middle English period, seems to point to an Old English *fierne, which would correspond to Old Saxon fern past (of years), Old High German firni old (Middle High German virne old, verne adverb, last year, modern German firne old, of last year), Gothic fairneis old < Old Germanic *fernjo-, cognate with Lithuanian pernai adverb, last year.

Etymology: < fern n.¹