fenny

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*pen-“moist, wet; mud; swamp; water”
2. Old English · inherited fromfenniġ“dirty; marshy, muddy, fenny”
3. Middle English · inherited fromfenny
4. English todayfenny

From Middle English fenny, fenni (“marshy, muddy; of meat: putrid, rotten; of a person: sinful, vile”), from Old English fenniġ (“dirty; marshy, muddy, fenny”), from fen, fenn (“marsh, fen; mud”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pen- (“moist, wet; mud; swamp; water”)) + -iġ (suffix forming adjectives). The English word is analysable as fen + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives).

Words from the same roots