English

Alternative forms

• dearn, darn

Noun

dern ‎(plural derns)

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

Etymology 2

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

dern ‎(comparative more dern, superlative most dern)

1. (now chiefly dialectal) Hidden; secret; private.
   • Dr. H. More, Immortal, of the Soul

     Now with their backs to the den's mouth they sit, / Yet shoulder not all light from the dern pit.

   • J. R. Drake, Culprit Fay

     Through dreary beds of tangled fern, / Through groves of nightshade dark and dern.

Etymology 3

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

dern ‎(third-person singular simple present derns, present participle derning, simple past and past participle derned)

1. (transitive, now chiefly dialectal) To hide; secrete, as in a hole.
   • H. Miller

     He at length escaped them by derning himself in a fox-earth.

2. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To hide oneself; skulk.
   • T. Hudson

     But look how soon they heard of Holoferne / Their courage quail'd, and they began to derne.

Etymology 4

Uncertain.

Noun

dern ‎(plural derns)

1. (Britain, dialect) A gatepost or doorpost.
   • 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 […]

Old Irish

Verb

·dern

1. first-person singular present subjunctive prototonic ro-form of do·gní