sb. and adv. Obs. Forms: α. 1 fyrnȝear, 4 fernȝere, -yere, (5 ferner), 5, 8, 9 fernyear, 9 Sc. foirnyear. β. 3 ivurnȝer. [OE. fyrnȝéar: see FERN a. and YEAR. From 14th c. often as two words, the adj. being inflected in ME.] A. sb.
1. A past year.
c. 1000. Gnomic Vers. (Cott.), 12 (Gr.). Fyrnþearum frod.
c. 1205. Lay., 25139. I þan iuurn ȝere.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XII. 5 How fele fernȝeres are faren and so fewe to come.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 32. Yf myn aunte your wyf bethought her wel of olde ferners she wolde not suffre that I shold haue ony harme.
1529. More, Supplic. Soulys, Wks. 296/1. Fetcheth furth old farne yeres.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 4. Ye regarde yet good prouerbes of olde ferne yeeres.
2. Last year, ‘yester-year.’ [Cf. mod.Ger. firnewein wine of last year.]
¶ Skinner took Chaucer’s ferne yere to mean February! Hence in Coles, 1692–1732.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 1176. Ye, farwel al the snowgh of ferne yere!
1406. Hoccleve, La Male Regle, 423.
| I dar nat speke a word of ferne yeer, | |
| So is my spirit simple and sore agast. |
15[?]. Sir Egeir (1711), 19.
| He … then told him a fern-years tale, | |
| And this while thus he wrought all hale. |
1737. Ramsay, Scot. Prov., xviii. 14. If I live anither year, I ’ll ca’ this year fern-year.
B. adv. a. In past years. [Cf. OE. fyrnȝéara, where the second element = YORE adv.] b. In the course of last year.
[c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Thorpe), xciv. 9 [xcv. 8]. Swa on grimnesse, fyrn-ȝeara dydan.]
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 440. The kyndenesse þat myne euene-cristene · kidde me fernyere.
1786. Harvest Rig, in Chambers, Pop. Poems Scot. (1862), 62.
| They’ll … reckon up what time fern-year | |
| The kirn was held. |
1806. J. Nicol, Poems, II. 3 (Jam.).
| He, fairnyear, ’gainst the en’mie’s power, | |
| Wi’ a choice gang had wander’d. |
