Forms: α. 1 fen(n, 3–7 fenn(e, (4 feen, 6 finne, fene), 2– fen. β. 2 ven, 2–4 venn(e. [OE. fęn, fęnn neut., masc. = OFris. fenne, fene masc. (MDu., MLG. venue, Du. ven fem., Du. veen neut.) water-meadow, bog. OHG. fenna fem., fenni neut. (Ger. fenne neut., fehn fem.) marsh, ON. fen neut., quagmire, Goth. fani neut., mud:—OTeut. *fanjo(m (-jo-z, -jâ).]
1. Low land covered wholly or partially with shallow water, or subject to frequent inundations; a tract of such land, a marsh.
Beowulf, 104 (Gr.). Se þe moras heold fen and fæsten.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xviii. § 2. & eall þæt his fennas & moras ȝenumen habbað.
c. 1205. Lay., 18113. He … drof Irisce men ȝeond wateres and ȝeond fenes.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 146. Grantebrigge & hontendone mest plente of dep ven.
c. 1325. Agst. King of Almaigne, in Pol. Songs (Camden), 70.
| He hath robbed Engelond, the mores ant th[e] fenne, | |
| The gold, and the selver, ant y-boren henne. |
c. 1440. York Myst., vii. 126. They will slee me, be ffenne or ffrith.
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 1321. In Lerna, the Grekis fen.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy. (1810), III. 584. Mexico, which is seated in a great fen.
1727–46. Thomson, Summer, 1015.
| When o’er this World, by Equinoctial Rains | |
| Flooded immense, looks out the joyless Sun, | |
| And draws the copious Steam: from swampy Fens, | |
| Where Putrefaction into Life ferments, | |
| And breathes destructive Myriads. |
1808. J. Barlow, The Columbiad, IV. 593.
| Win from the waters every stagnant fen, | |
| Where truant rills escape my conscious ken. |
1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., III. xiv. (1886), 111. The thicket stretched down from the top of one of the sandy knolls, spreading and growing taller as it went, until it reached the margin of the broad, reedy fen, through which the nearest of the little rivers soaked its way into the anchorage.
fig. 1676. Marvell, Mr. Smirke, 36. He did by consequence cut, Poe-dike to let in a Flood of Heresies, upon the Fenns of Christianity.
1802. Wordsw., ‘Milton! thou should’st be living.’
| England hath need of thee; she is a fen | |
| Of stagnant waters. |
1866. Alger, The Solitudes of Nature and of Man, III. 129. The hot fen of emulation and vice.
b. esp. † The fen (obs.), the fens: certain low-lying districts in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and some adjoining counties.
905. O. E. Chron. an. 905. Eall oð ða fennas norð.
c. 1540. Pilgr. Tale, 1, in Thynne’s Animadv. (1875), Appendix I. 77.
| In lincolneshyr, fast by the fene, | |
| ther stant a hows, and you yt ken. |
1631. Reports of Cases in the Courts of Star Chamber (Camden), 59. The Bill set forth that his Majestie being seized of divers lands and wast grounds called the Fennes.
1770. Gray, in Corr. N. Nicholls (1843), 115. Two hundred thousand acres are drowned in the Fens here.
1809. Med. Jrnl., XXI. 92. A short visit to the Fens of Cambridgeshire.
1890. Murray’s Handbk. Lincolnshire, 4. Large flocks of geese are still kept in the Fens about Spalding.
† 2. Mud, clay, dirt, mire, filth. Also, excrement.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xvi. 104. Ðonne he underfehð ðæt fenn ðara ðweandra.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 147. Limus, lutum, fenn.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 47. Ieremie … stod … in þe uenne up to his muðe.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 490. Or or flum noe spredde his fen.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 655.
| And of þe comes mykel foul thyng, | |
| Als fen, and uryn and spyttyng. |
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 62. To … baþe hem in lustis as swyn in feen.
1460. Lybeaus Disc., 1499.
| Bothe maydenes, and garssoun, | |
| Fowyll fen schull on the throwe. |
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. iv. 17.
| Bot the vile belleis of thai cursit schrewis | |
| Aboundis of fen maist abhominable. |
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., III. 440.
| The loving in ane mannis mouth, | |
| Maid of him self, stinkis lyke ony fen | |
| Into the eiris of all vther men. |
fig. 1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 17. Virgile souȝt gold of wit and wisdom in the fen of Ennii þe poete.
3. slang. (see quots.) ? Obs.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Fag the Fen, drub the Whore.
1725. New Cant. Dict., Fen, a Strumpet, or Bawd, a common Prostitute.
4. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attributive, as fen bank, -boat, -boot, -country, -duck, -dyke, -earth, -fowl, -frog, -grass, -land (whence fen-lander), -river, -rush, -skate, -skater, -skating, -soil. b. objective, as fen-affecter, -dweller, -farmer, -farming, -paring. c. originative, as fen-born, -bred, -sucked adjs.
1616. Chapman, Batrochom., 17. The farre-fam’de *Fen-affecter.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1692), 73. The *Fenbanks in the Isle of Ely.
1890. Daily News, 12 June, 6/2. A fen-bank about six miles from Peterborough.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1769), III. 272. One of the little *fen boats.
1805. Scott, Thornton’s Sporting Tour, in Edin. Rev., V., Jan., 401. He rubbed the skin off his heel by the hard seam of his *fen-boot.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. 63. Like that *fenborn serpent she be shot to death with the darts of the sun, the pure and powerful beams of Gods word.
1871. Swinburne, Songs bef. Sunrise, Eve of Revolution, 296.
| What wind blow out these fen-born fires that dance | |
| Before thee to thy death? |
1597. Drayton, Mortimeriados, 116.
| Greatnes, lyke to the Sunnes reflecting powers, | |
| The *fen-bred vapours naturally exhales, | |
| And is the cause that oft the evening lowers, | |
| When foggie mists enlarge their duskie sailes. |
1830. T. Allen, Hist. Lincolnsh., I. iii. 65. Other rivers of the *Fen Country.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. vi. 441. Cnut’s personal tastes seem to have led him to the great religious houses of the fen country.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, iii. 65. The flesh of the *Fenducke, or Moore-hen seemeth for the fatnes of it commendable.
1610. *Fen-dweller [see FEN-MAN].
1647. Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T. (1841), 84. Strange that those fen-dwellers should approach the fiery region.
1878. Miller & Skertchley, Fenland, xiii. 416. The spleen of fen-dwellers is often enlarged.
c. 1710. C. Fiennes, Diary (1888), 127. Ye *ffendiks wch are deep ditches wth draines.
a. 1728. Woodward, Fossils (1729), I. 205. The surface is of Black *Fen Earth.
1891. A. J. Foster, The Ouse, 196. Ely keeps up a little of the position of a county town as being the headquarters of the militia, and the *fen-farmers still gather in its market-place on Thursdays.
1852. Clarke, Fen Sketches 262. The unexampled improvements which have taken place in *Fen-farming.
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), II. ii. 28. And harken, you *fen-frogs all.
1844. Hardy, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 108. A covering of *fen-grasses.
a. 1000. Guthlac (1848), 50. Mid þy he þurh þa *fenland reow.
1070. O. E. Chron. an. 1070. Þet Englisce folc of eall þa feon landes comen to heom.
1855. Longf., Hiaw., Introd. 30.
| All the wild-fowl sang them to him, | |
| In the moorlands and the fen-lands, | |
| In the melancholy marshes. |
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1811), II. 21. Apud Girvios; that is, amongst the *Fenlanders.
1797. A. Young, Agric. of Suffolk, 161. A very complete and effective tool, called a *fen-paring plough, the furrow of which is burnt.
1546. Langley, Pol. Verg. De Invent., II. vii. 45 a. A kind of *fen-rishes yt grew in the marish groundes of Egipt.
1892. Badminton Libr., Skating, vii. 268. A standard type of *Fen skates.
1882. N. & A. Goodman (title), Handbook of *Fen skating.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 375. Light *fen soils.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. iv. 169.
| Infect her Beauty, | |
| You *Fen-suck’d Fogges, drawne by the powrfull Sunne, | |
| To fall, and blister. |
b. In various plant-names, etc.: as, fen-berry, the cranberry (Vaccinium Oxycoccus); fen-cress = WATERCRESS (Nasturtium officinale); † fen-down = COTTON-GRASS; fen grapes = fenberry; fen lentil, water lentils (Lemna minor); fen-rue (see quot.); † fen whort = fen-berry.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. 671. Those which the Germaynes doo call Veenbesien, that is to say Marsh or *Fen-berries.
1678. Littleton, Lat. Dict., s.v., Fen-berries.
1863. Prior, Plant-n. (1879), 77. Fen-berry, from its growing in fens, the cranberry.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 18. Wiþ heafod waærce, ȝenim … *fencersan.
1818. Todd, Fen-cress.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 19. With no scalded fethers nor *fen downe nor none other unlawful and corrupt stuffes.
1720. Strype, Stow’s Surv. (1754), II. 317/2. They … bought Fen Down … for an Half penny a Pound, and sold the same among Feathers for 6d. a Pound.
1597. Gerard, Herball, III. clxvi. 1367. Moszbeeren, Veenbesien; that is to saie *Fen grapes or Fen berries.
1878–86. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Fen Grapes, Vaccinium Oxycoccus L.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 378. After the manner of *Fen-lentils or Duckes meat, more odoriferous than Saffron.
1863. Prior, Plant-n. (1879), 77. *Fen-Rue, from its divided rue-like leaves and place of growth. Thalictrum flavum L.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. xi. 671. Marrishe or *Fen Whortes grow … in low, moyst places.
5. Special comb. † fen-canopy (see quot.); fen-cock (see quot.); fen-cricket, the mole cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris); fen-fever, a malarious fever; fen-fire = IGNIS FATUUS, a will of the wisp; fen-goose, usually the Grey-Lag Goose (Anser cinereus); fen-nightingale (see quot.); fen-oak (see quot.); fen-pole, a jumping pole for crossing ditches, etc.; fen-reeve, an officer having charge of fen lands; fen-runners, a kind of skates suitable for fen-skating; fen-shake, the ague; fen-slodger, a name given to the Fen-men; fen-thrush (see quot.). Also FEN-HOOD, FEN-MAN.
1658. Rowland, Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 957. Our Countreymen that live about the Fens have invented a canopy (the first that ever I read of) with less cost, but the same profit, which they call a *Fen-canopy, being made of a broad, plain, half dry, somewhat hard piece, or many pieces together of Cowes dung, and these they hang at their beds feet: with the smell and juice whereof the Gnats being very much taken and feeding thereon all the night long, let them sleep quietly in their beds without any disturbance or molestation at all, being sufficient reward for their pains so taken.
1880. W. Cornwall Gloss., *Fencock, the water-rail.
1678. Littleton, Lat. Dict., A *Fen-cricket, gryllotalpa.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Fen-cricket, a name given by some people to the gryllotalpa.
1772. J. Lind (title), A Treatise on the Putrid and Remitting *Fen Fever.
1814–5. Shelley, ‘The cold earth,’ iii.
| Thine eyes glowed in the glare | |
| Of the moon’s dying light; | |
| As a *fen-fire’s beam on a sluggish stream, | |
| Gleams dimly. |
18[?]. Swinburne, Athens.
| Mocked as whom the fen-fire leads | |
| By the creed-wrought faith of faithless souls that mock their doubts with creeds. |
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. II., Magnif., 426. The wilde *Fen-goose.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1776), II. 482. Grey Lag, the Fen-Goose of Lister.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Brit. Birds, 147. Fen, or Marsh, goose.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, *Fen-nightingale, a frog.
1868. W. H. Wheeler, Fens S. Lincolnsh., 69. Nor must the mention of the fen nightingales or frogs be omitted.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., *Fen-oaks, willows.
1844. Camp of Refuge, I. 10. It was a *fen-pole, such … as our fenners yet use.
1865. W. White, E. Eng., II. 172. The common lands are under the charge of *‘fen-reeves.’
1873. Kingsley, Plays & Puritans, 76. How merrily their long *fen-runners whistled along the ice-lane.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., I. ix. 350. What they [imported Irish reapers] call the *fen-shake.
1856. P. Thompson, Hist. Boston, 644. The Fenmen … were a century later known as Slodgers or *Fen-Slodgers.
1893. Baring Gould, Cheap Jack Zita, I. 57. Sons or grandsons of half-wild fen-slodgers.
1854. Baker, Gloss. Northampton, I. 226. *Fen-thrush. The missel-thrush, Turdus viscivorus.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Brit. Birds, 2. Missel Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) … Fen Thrush (Northants).
