Dern

Alternative forms

• dearn, darn

From Middle English dern, derne, from Old English dyrne, dierne ("secret"), from Proto-Germanic *darniją ("secret"), from Proto-Indo-European *dher(ǝ)-, *dhrē- ("to hold, hold tight, support"). See below.

Full definition of dern

Noun

1. (now chiefly dialectal) A secret; secrecy.
2. (now chiefly dialectal) A secret place; hiding.
3. (now chiefly dialectal) An obscure language.
4. (now chiefly dialectal) Darkness; obscurity.

Derived terms

• in dern

From Middle English dern, derne, from Old English dyrne, dierne ("hidden, secret, retired, obscure, remote, eluding detection, concealed, deceitful, evil, magical"), from Proto-Germanic *darnijaz ("hidden, masked"), from Proto-Indo-European *dher(ǝ)-, *dhrē- ("to hold, hold tight, support"). Cognate with Old Frisian dern, dren ("hidden, secret"), Old Saxon derni ("hidden, secret"), Old High German tarni ("hidden").

Adjective

1. (now chiefly dialectal) Hidden; secret; private.
• Dr. H. More, Immortal, of the SoulNow with their backs to the den's mouth they sit,
  Yet shoulder not all light from the dern pit.
• J. R. Drake, Culprit FayThrough dreary beds of tangled fern,
  Through groves of nightshade dark and dern.

From Middle English dernen, dærnen, from Old English dyrnan, diernan ("to keep secret, conceal, hide, restrain, repress, hide oneself"), from Proto-Germanic *darnijaną ("to conceal"), from Proto-Indo-European *dher(ǝ)-, *dhrē- ("to hold, hold tight, support"). Cognate with Old Saxon dernian ("to conceal"), German tarnen ("to camougflage, disguise"). See also darn, tarnish.

Verb

1. (transitive, now chiefly dialectal) To hide; secrete, as in a hole.He at length escaped them by derning himself in a fox-earth. ― H. Miller.
2. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To hide oneself; skulk.But look how soon they heard of Holoferne
   Their courage quail'd, and they began to derne. ― T. Hudson.

Uncertain.

Noun

1. (UK, dialect) A gatepost or doorpost.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.., Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, Ch. XIV, How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings.----