frond

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin frons, frond- (“leafy branch”).

noun

1. (botany) The leaf of a fern, especially a compound leaf.
2. Any fern-like leaf or other object resembling a fern leaf.
   Scores of coconut-shell fires blazed with their characteristic glaring white flame, throwing grotesque shadows on the brown thatched huts, dancing in fairylike shimmerings among the domes of coconut fronds, casting ghostly reaches of light through the adjacent graveyards, and silhouetting the forms of pareu-clad natives at work cleaning their fish or laying them on the live coals to broil. 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 35