different between firn vs girn

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Firn, from Alemannic German firn (“last year's”), from Old High German firni (“old”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *firnijaz, *fernaz (“foregoing, previous”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“forth, forward, across, through”); cognate with Old English fyrn (“former”), Old Norse forn (“old”), and Gothic ???????????????????????????????? (fairneis, “old”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f??n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /f??n/

Noun

firn (countable and uncountable, plural firns)

1. A type of old snow which has gone through multiple thaw and refreeze cycles and thus is made of numerous small icy grains, though it is not nearly as saturated with water as snow-cone slush is; can be hard or somewhat soft depending on recent and current weather conditions.

   Synonym: névé

Derived terms

• firnification

Translations

Further reading

• firn on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

Anagrams

• NIRF

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?f?rn]
• Hyphenation: firn

Noun

firn m inan

1. firn

Declension

Further reading

• firn in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• firn in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

German

Etymology

From Middle High German virne, from Old High German firni, from Proto-Germanic *fernaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?f??n]

Adjective

firn (comparative firner, superlative am firnsten)

1. (wine) aged

Declension

Related terms

• Firn
• Firne

Further reading

• “firn” in Duden online
• “firn” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “firn” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.

Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [firn]

Noun

firn m (genitive singular firnu, nominative plural firny, genitive plural firnov, declension pattern of dub)

1. firn

Declension

References

• firn in Slovak dictionaries at slovnik.juls.savba.sk

English

Alternative forms

• gurn
• gurne

Etymology

Metathesized form of grin.

Verb

girn (third-person singular simple present girns, present participle girning, simple past and past participle girned)

1. (dialectal) To grimace; to snarl.
   • 1999, Jessica Stirling, The Wind from the Hills, St Martin's Press.

     At seventy-five or eighty I will be like a child myself, frail and cantankerous, a girning, burdensome old devil.

2. (Scotland, Northern England) To whinge, moan, complain.
   • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, p. 107:

     And Jim was just girning all the time. I telled him to shut it.

3. (intransitive) To make elaborate unnatural and distorted faces as a form of amusement or in a girning competition.

Noun

girn (plural girns)

1. A vocalization similar to a cat's purring.
   • 2002, edited by Richard J. Davidson, Handbook of Affective Sciences, Oxford University Press, p. 569:

     A different vocalization, a girn, simiular to a cat's purring, was observed in infants reunited with their mothers...

See also

• gowl

Anagrams

• NGRI, Ring, grin, ring