fen

Etymology 1

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”).

noun

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

Etymology 2

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

noun

1. 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, page 184

Etymology 3

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

noun

1. (dated, 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.
   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. 1951-05-21, Winthrop Sargeant, “Through the Interstellar Looking Glass”, in Life, volume 30, number 21, page 127
   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. 2016-09-03, lurkertype, “Worldcon 75 Chair Responds”, in File 770, Comments

Etymology 4

Compare fend.

intj

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

Etymology 5

From Middle English *vene, Kentish variant of *fine, from Old English fyne (“moisture, mold, mildew”), from Proto-Germanic *funiz, *fun- (“moisture, mold”); compare vinew.

noun

1. (obsolete) A kind of mildew that grows on hops.
   […]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
   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
   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