Where does “Christmas fern” come from?
Christmas fern (English) comes from English Christmas, from Middle English Cristemasse, from Old English Cristes mæsse, from Old English mæsse, from Vulgar Latin messa, from Latin missa, from Latin missum, from Latin mittō — to hurt; to exchange, remove; to replace, to...
Christmas fern (English): An evergreen fern of eastern North America
Definitions
- An evergreen fern of eastern North America
Ancestry of “Christmas fern”, step by step
Christmas fern traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Christmas
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Christmas | A festival or holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ and incorporating various Christian, pre-Christian, pagan, and secular customs including gift-giving, which in Western Christianity is celebrated on December 25 (Christmas Day) in most places |
| 2 | Middle English | Cristemasse | Christmas the 25th of December |
| 3 | Old English | Cristes mæsse | Christmas |
| 4 | Old English | mæsse | mass |
| 5 | Vulgar Latin | messa | Eucharist, dismissal; Eucharist; dismissal;... |
| 6 | Latin | missa | Mass; Christian eucharistic liturgy; nominative... |
| 7 | Latin | missum | accusative supine of mittō; inflection of... |
| 8 | Latin | mittō | to send, dispatch, cause to go, let go, release, discharge |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | meitō | to put forth, put out |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | meyth₂- | to hurt; to exchange, remove; to replace, to... |
via English fern
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | fern | Any of a group of some twenty thousand species of... |
| 2 | Middle English | fern | fern plant of the division |
| 3 | Old English | fearn | fern |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | farn | fern |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | pornóm | feather, wing; fern, leaf |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | per- | before, in front; first; to go through |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | pr̥tós | passed , crossed |