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dern

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dern¹

  • /ˈdɜː(ɹ)n/

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n

Where it comes from

From Middle English dern, derne, from Old English dyrne, dierne (“secret”), from Proto-West Germanic *darnī (“hidden, secret”).

noun derns

  1. obsolete A secret; secrecy.
  2. obsolete A secret place; hiding.
  3. obsolete An obscure language.
  4. obsolete Darkness; obscurity.

dern²

  • /ˈdɜː(ɹ)n/

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n

Where it comes from

From Middle English dern, derne, from Old English dyrne, dierne (“hidden, secret, retired, obscure, remote, eluding detection, concealed, deceitful, evil, magical”), from Proto-West Germanic *darnī (“hidden, secret”). Doublet of terne.

adjective more dern · most dern

  1. dialectal, obsolete Hidden; secret; private. Now with their backs to the den's mouth they sit, / Yet shoulder not all light from the dern pit.

dern³

  • /ˈdɜː(ɹ)n/

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n

Where it comes from

From Middle English dernen, dærnen, from Old English dyrnan, diernan (“to keep secret, conceal, hide, restrain, repress, hide oneself”), from Proto-West Germanic *darnijan (“to conceal”), from *darnī (“hidden, secret”). Cognate with Old Saxon dernian (“to conceal”), German tarnen (“to camouflage, disguise”). See also darn, tarnish.

verb derns · derning · derned

  1. obsolete, transitive To hide; secrete, as in a hole. He at length escaped them by derning himself in a fox-earth.
  2. intransitive, obsolete To hide oneself; skulk. But look how soon they heard of Holoferne / Their courage quail'd, and they began to derne.

dern⁴

  • /ˈdɜː(ɹ)n/

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n

Where it comes from

Uncertain. Maybe related to door.

noun derns

  1. UK A gatepost or doorpost. 1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, Ch. XIV, How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings So I just put my eye between the wall and the dern of the gate, and I saw him come up to the back door […]

Dern⁵

Where it comes from

Borrowed from German Dern.

proper noun Derns

  1. A surname from German.

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Cite this
MLA

"dern." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/dern. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

dern. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/dern

Chicago

"dern." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/dern.

BibTeX
@misc{dern_2026,
  title = {dern},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dern},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}