Where does “tern” come from?
Tern comes from French terne, from Latin ternas, from Frankish darnī, a word of obscure ultimate origin and meaning.
tern (English): Any of various sea birds of the family Sternidae...
Definitions
- Any of various sea birds of the family Sternidae...
Ancestry of “tern”, step by step
tern traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English terne
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | terne | — |
| 2 | Old French | terne | dull, dim |
| 3 | Latin | ternas | accusative feminine plural of terni |
| 4 | Latin | terni | three each; three at a time |
| 5 | Latin | ter | thrice |
| 6 | Latin | terr | — |
| 7 | Old Latin | tris | — |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | trēs | three |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | *tréyes | — |
via Old Norse þerna
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old Norse | þerna | tern; maid servant |
| 2 | Old Saxon | thiorna | virgin |
| 3 | Proto-West Germanic | *þewernā | handmaid, female servant |
Words derived from “tern”