different between quagmire vs fen

English

Etymology

Recorded since 1579, from quag +? mire. The sense “perilous, mixed up and troubled situation” has been recorded since 1775.

Alternatively, the word may apparently be a variation of the earlier quakemire, from quake + mire.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kw??.ma??(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kwæ?.ma???/
• Hyphenation: quag?mire

Noun

quagmire (plural quagmires)

1. A swampy, soggy area of ground.

   Synonyms: marsh, marshland, mire, quag
2. (figuratively) A perilous, mixed up and troubled situation; a hopeless tangle; a predicament.

Translations

Verb

quagmire (third-person singular simple present quagmires, present participle quagmiring, simple past and past participle quagmired)

1. (transitive) To embroil (a person, etc.) in complexity or difficulty.

References

• quagmire at OneLook Dictionary Search.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?n/
• Rhymes: -?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English fen, fenne, from Old English fenn (“fen; marsh; mud; dirt”), Proto-West Germanic *fani, from Proto-Germanic *fanj? (compare West Frisian fean, Dutch veen, German Fenn, Norwegian fen), from Proto-Indo-European *pen- (“bog, mire”). Compare Middle Irish en (“water”), enach (“swamp”), Old Prussian pannean (“peat-bog”), Sanskrit ???? (pa?ka, “marsh, mud, mire, slough”).

Noun

fen (plural fens)

1. A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline.
   • 1807, William Wordsworth, "England, 1802," collected in Poems (1807):

     Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:

     England hath need of thee: she is a fen

     Of stagnant waters […]

   • 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp, from Poems on Slavery:

     In dark fens of the Dismal Swamp / The hunted Negro lay; [...]

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• bog
• everglade
• marsh
• swamp
• wetland

Etymology 2

Noun

fen (plural fens)

2. A unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan.

Translations

Etymology 3

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

Noun

fen pl (normally plural, singular fan)

1. (dated, fandom slang) Fans; a plural form used by enthusiasts of science fiction, fantasy, and anime, partly from whimsy and partly to distinguish themselves from fans of sport, etc.

Coordinate terms

• fenne

Derived terms

Etymology 4

Compare fend.

Interjection

fen

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

fen (uncountable)

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

Anagrams

• ENF, nef

Catalan

Verb

fen

1. third-person singular present indicative form of fendre
2. second-person singular imperative form of fendre

Chuukese

Adjective

fen

1. holy

Synonyms

• pin

Adverb

fen

1. past tense marker for verbs
2. already

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?f?n]
• Rhymes: -?n

Etymology 1

Noun

fen m

1. fen (unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan).

Declension

Etymology 2

Noun

fen

1. genitive plural of fena

Further reading

• fen in Kartotéka Novo?eského lexikálního archivu

Dalmatian

Etymology

From Latin f?nitus. Compare Italian fino.

Adjective

fen (feminine faina)

1. fine
2. subtle
3. pure

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse fen, from Proto-Germanic *fanj?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fe?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n

Noun

fen n (genitive singular fens, plural fen)

1. bog, quagmire

Declension

Derived terms

• fenbressa
• fendíki
• fenjutur

Friulian

Etymology

From Latin faenum, f?num.

Noun

fen m (plural fens)

1. hay

Related terms

• fenoli

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?f?n]
• Hyphenation: fen
• Rhymes: -?n

Etymology 1

From Proto-Finno-Ugric *pän? (“grindstone; grind”).

Verb

fen

1. (transitive) to sharpen, to whet, to hone

   Synonyms: köszörül, élesít, élez

2. (dialectal) to rub, to smear

   Synonyms: ken, dörgöl

Conjugation

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Noun

fen (plural fenek)

2. fen (unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan)

Declension

References

Further reading

• (to whet): fen in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse fen, from Proto-Germanic *fanj?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??n/
• Rhymes: -??n

Noun

fen n (genitive singular fens, nominative plural fen)

1. fen, marsh, morass

Declension

Istriot

Etymology

From Latin faenum, f?num.

Noun

fen

1. hay

Mandarin

Romanization

fen

1. Nonstandard spelling of f?n.
2. Nonstandard spelling of fén.
3. Nonstandard spelling of f?n.
4. Nonstandard spelling of fèn.

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• fenne, ven

Etymology

From Old English fenn; from Proto-Germanic *fanj?. The "dung" sense is influenced by Old French fien.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?n/

Noun

fen (plural fennes)

1. fen, bog, swamp
2. dirt, muddiness
3. dung, feces
4. (rare) rubbish, refuse
5. (rare) quagmire, lure

Declension

Descendants

• English: fen
• Scots: fen

References

• “fen, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “fen, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *fanj?.

Noun

fen n (genitive fens, plural fen)

1. bog, quagmire

Declension

References

• fen in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Föhn.

Noun

f?n m (Cyrillic spelling ????)

1. hair dryer
2. (meteorology) foehn

Declension

Swedish

Noun

fen

1. definite singular of fe

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic ????? (fann).

Noun

fen (definite accusative fenni, plural fenler)

1. science

Declension

Synonyms

• ilim
• bilim