[OE. fęnnig, f. fęnn FEN.] 1. Of the nature of, or characterized by, fen; boggy, swampy.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 147. Uliginosus ager, fenniȝ æcer.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., II. 22. The fenny feeld it is not forto plowe.
a. 1440. Found. St. Bartholomew’s, 12. Right vncleene it was and as a maryce dunge and fenny with water.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 19. Thei [serpentes] are foure foted, foure cubites in length, engendered and conuersaunte in fennie and marrishe groundes.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, IV. 162. For so many faire and Nauigable Riuers so neere adioyning, and piercing thorow so faire a naturall Land, free from any inundations, or large Fenny vnwholsome Marshes, I haue not seene, read, nor heard of.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 406, 16 June, ¶ 4. It is a custom with the northern lovers to divert themselves with a song, whilst they journey through the fenny moors to pay a visit to their mistresses.
1805. Luccock, Nat. Wool, 186. The Lincolnshire sheep, which formerly was almost the only animal of the kind known through the fenny district, bears a longer, more coarse and shaggy wool, upon a larger and rougher carcase.
1858. Bushnell, Nat. & Supernat., vi. (1864), 192. Muddy rivers, with their fenny shores, tenanted by hideous alligators.
2. Inhabiting, growing, or produced in a fen. Now only of plants.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., II. ix. 42. He must abstaine also from maryshe fyshes and fennie, and drye … oystres.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 128. Yf a goose fether be best, then whether there be any difference, as concernyge the fether of an oulde goose, and a yonge goose: a gander, or a goose: a fennye goose, or an vplandish goose.
1587. Harrison, England, II. xxii. (1877), I. 343. Fennie bote, broome, turffe, [etc.] … will be good merchandize euen in the citie of London.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. i. 12.
| Fillet of a Fenny Snake, | |
| In the Cauldron boyle and bake. |
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1608), 705. Indian Dragons … fenny, and living in the marishes.
c. 1629. Layton, Synos Plea, Ep. Ded. Fenny-Bitters in their hollowe canne make a terrible noyse.
1660. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 181. They are a fenny fowl.
a. 1721. Prior, Solomon, I. 324.
| The hungry crocodile, and hissing snake, | |
| Lurk in the troubled stream and fenny brake. |
1818. Keats, Endym., I. 79.
| Paths there were many, | |
| Winding through palmy fern, and rushes fenny | |
| And ivy banks. |
1822. Hood, Lycus.
| Methought, where one sat, I descried a bright wonder | |
| That flow’d like a long silver rivulet under | |
| The long fenny grass. |
† 3. Muddy, dirty. Also fig. Obs.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xiii. 74. Gif sio [hond] ðonne bið eac fenneȝu.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1113.
| Þaȝ þou be man fenny, | |
| & al to-marred in myre whyl þou on molde lyuyes, | |
| Þou may schyne þurȝ schryfte. |
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, lxxvii. 50. Vayn ianglynge þat is in fenny wittes.
1635. Quarles, Embl., II. xiv. (1718), 118.
| Lord, what a nothing is this little span, | |
| We call a man! | |
| What fenny trash maintains the smoth’ring fires | |
| Of his desires! |
4. Comb., fenny-seated a., situated in a fen; † fenny-stones, a kind of Orchis.
1631. J. Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments, 58. That famous fenny-seated Monastery.
1597. Gerard, Herball, I. cv. 174. Of Fennie stones.
1678. Phillips, Fenny-stones, a plant somewhat of the nature and kind of the Cynos Orchis or Dog-stones.
1721–1800. Bailey, Fenny-stones.
