Wiktionary

terne

See also: térne

English edit

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

Borrowed from French terne,[1] from Middle French, from Old French terne (“dim, dull”), from Frankish *darnī (“concealed, hidden; secret”); further etymology unknown, perhaps related to Proto-West Germanic *derk (“dark; dirty”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerg- (“to darken, dim”).

Adjective edit

terne (comparative more terne, superlative most terne)

  1. Colourless, drab, dull.
Translations edit
colourless, drab, dull — see colourless,‎ drab,‎ dull

Etymology 2 edit

From terneplate,[2] probably from terne (“colourless, drab, dull”) (see etymology 1) + plate (“layer of a material on the surface of something, plating”).

Noun edit

terne (countable and uncountable, plural ternes)

  1. (also attributively) An alloy coating made of lead and tin (or, more recently, zinc and tin), often with some antimony, used to cover iron or steel.
  2. Synonym of terneplate (“thin iron or steel sheeting coated with this alloy”)

Etymology 3 edit

A variant of tern.

Noun edit

terne (plural ternes)

  1. Obsolete spelling of tern (“any of various seabirds of the subfamily Sternidae (of the family Laridae) that are similar to gulls but are smaller and have a forked tail”) [17th c.]

References edit

  1. ^ Compare “terne, adj.1 (and n.1)”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
  2. ^ “terne, adj.2 and n.2”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2018; “terne, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

French edit

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle French, from Old French terne (“dull, dim”), from Frankish *darnī (“hidden, secret”).

Adjective edit

terne (plural ternes)

  1. dull; colourless; drab
Related terms edit

Etymology 2 edit

Borrowed from Latin ternas.

Noun edit

terne m (plural ternes)

  1. (obsolete) trinity, gathering of three people
  2. (backgammon, dice games) double-three
  3. (bingo) three in a row

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

Latin edit

Adjective edit

terne

  1. vocative masculine singular of ternus

Norwegian Bokmål edit

 
Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology edit

From Old Norse þerna.

Noun edit

terne f or m (definite singular terna or ternen, indefinite plural terner, definite plural ternene)

  1. a tern (seabird of family Sternidae)

References edit

Anagrams edit

Norwegian Nynorsk edit

 
Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Etymology edit

From Old Norse þerna. Akin to English tern.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

terne f (definite singular terna, indefinite plural terner, definite plural ternene)

  1. a tern (seabird of family Sternidae)

References edit

Romani edit

Adjective edit

terne

  1. inflection of terno:
    1. nominative plural
    2. oblique masculine singular/feminine singular/plural

Spanish edit

Verb edit

terne

  1. inflection of ternar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=terne&oldid=75077080"