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fern [fern 词源字典]: fern: [OE] Fern is a fairly widespread Indo- European word, represented among the other West Germanic languages by German farn and Dutch varen. It comes ultimately from Indo- European *porno-. This also produced Sanskrit parnám, which meant ‘feather’ as well as ‘leaf’, suggesting that the fern may have been named originally from the feathery leaves of some species.
[fern etymology, fern origin, 英语词源]
barnacle (n.): early 13c., "species of wild goose;" as a type of "shellfish," first recorded 1580s. Often derived from a Celtic source (compare Breton bernik, a kind of shellfish), but the application to the goose predates that of the shellfish in English. The goose nests in the Arctic in summer and returns to Europe in the winter, hence the mystery surrounding its reproduction. It was believed in ancient superstition to hatch from barnacle's shell, possibly because the crustacean's feathery stalks resemble goose down. The scientific name of the crustacean, Cirripedes, is from Greek cirri "curls of hair" + pedes "feet."
fern (n.): Old English fearn "fern," from Proto-Germanic *farno- (cognates: Old Saxon farn, Middle Dutch vaern, Dutch varen, Old High German farn, German Farn).

Possibly the word has a prehistoric sense of "having feathery fronds" and is from PIE *por-no-, which has yielded words for "feather, wing" (cognates: Sanskrit parnam "feather;" Lithuanian papartis "fern;" Russian paporot'; Greek pteris "fern," pteron "feather"), from the root *per- (2) "to lead, pass over" (see petition (n.)). The plant's ability to appear as if from nothing accounts for the ancient belief that fern seeds conferred invisibility (1590s). Filicology "science or study of ferns" (1848) is from Latin filix "fern."
fluff (n.): "light, feathery stuff," 1790, apparently a variant of floow "wooly substance, down, nap" (1580s), perhaps from Flemish vluwe, from French velu "shaggy, hairy," from Latin vellus "fleece," or Latin villus "tuft of hair" (see velvet). OED suggests fluff as "an imitative modification" of floow, "imitating the action of puffing away some light substance." Slang bit of fluff "young woman" is from 1903. The marshmallow confection Fluff dates to c. 1920 in Massachusetts, U.S.
plumate: "Resembling a feather; feathery", Early 19th century: from Latin pluma 'feather' + -ate².
pyrethrum: "An aromatic plant of the daisy family, typically having feathery foliage and brightly coloured flowers", Middle English (denoting pellitory): from Latin, from Greek purethron 'feverfew'. The current senses (based on the former genus name) date from the late 19th century.
pteris: "Originally: †bracken, Pteridium aquilinum (formerly Pteris aquilina) ( obsolete ). In later use (in form Pteris): a genus of ferns, now comprising largely tropical and subtropical species but formerly including bracken; (also in form pteris) a fern of this genus (also pteris fern)", Early 17th cent.; earliest use found in Philemon Holland (1552–1637), translator. From classical Latin pteris, either of two kinds of fern, sometimes identified with male fern and bracken (Pliny; later adopted as genus name: see note below) and its etymon Hellenistic Greek πτέρις male fern (from ancient Greek πτερόν wing + -ις), so called on account of its feathery leaves.