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▪ I. tern, n.1|tɜːn|
Also 7 terne.
[Of Norse origin: cf. Da. terne, Sw. tärna, Norw. and Færo. terna:—ON. þerna, the tern or sea swallow.
Some consider tern to be related to stearn, stern, which occurs in OE. as a bird-name, and, in the form starn, is a name in E. Anglia of the Common and the Black Tern; it is mentioned by W. Turner Avium præcipuarum historia, 1544, as ‘nostrati lingua sterna appellata’, whence Linnæus took Sterna as a generic name.]
The common name of a group of sea-birds of the genus Sterna, or sub-family Sterninæ, akin to the gulls, but having generally a more slender body, long pointed wings, and a forked tail; a sea swallow.
Of the species, which are widely diffused from Arctic to extreme southern coasts, the British Museum Catalogue reckons more than 50, of which 33 are placed in the genus Sterna, and about 18 distributed in ten other genera. Of these, six are considered indigenous to the British coasts, and many more to those of N. America. The common tern of Britain and N. America is Sterna hirundo (or fluviatilis); the sandwich tern, the largest British species, now scarce, is S. cantiaca; the arctic tern, S. macrura; the roseate tern, S. dougalli; the little tern, S. minuta; the black tern, Hydrochelidon (formerly Sterna) nigra.
1678Ray Willughby's Ornith. 352 This [Black Tern, Sterna nigra] is also the brown Tern of Mr. Johnson. Ibid. 353 In the Northern parts they call them Terns, whence Turner calls them in Latine, Sternæ. 1785Latham Gen. Syn. III. ii. 356 Sandwich Tern... This species is pretty common on the coasts of Kent. 1832H. Martineau Ella of Gar. iii, The terns and gulls screaming. 1888Newton in Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 189/1 The Sandwich Tern, S. sandvicensis or S. cantiaca..is the largest of the British species.
▪ II. tern, a. and n.2|tɜːn|
[As adj., ad. L. ternī three each. As n., app. a. F. terne (15th c.).]
†A. adj. Bot. Arranged in threes; ternate.
1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. iii. xxii. (1788) 242 The Peduncle..is said to be..Tern, or three from the same Axilla. Ibid. xxiii. 252 In respect to Opposition, opposite Leaves will sometimes become tern, quatern, or quine, growing by Threes, Fours, or Fives. 1828in Webster.
B. n.
1. A set of three; a trio, triplet. spec.
†a. pl. [F. un terne, formerly ternes:—L. ternās.] A double three in dice playing. (In quot. fig.) Obs.
b. In a lottery, three winning numbers drawn together; a prize gained by such a drawing.
c. A group of three stanzas.
13..Coer de L. 2009 King Richard held a tronchon true..Ternes and quernes he gave him there. 1856Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh vii. 1247 She'd win a tern in Thursday's lottery. 1869Browning Ring & Bk. xii. 158 But that he forbid The Lottery, why, Twelve were Tern Quatern! 1879Furnivall Chaucer's Min. P. 419 This late Poem [Envoy to Scogan] composed of two Terns and an Envoy.
2. Math. A system of three pairs of conjugate triads of planes which together contain the twenty-seven straight lines lying in a cubic surface (i.e. one represented by an equation of the third degree).
1891in Cent. Dict.
3. A three-masted schooner; a three-master. (Local, New Eng.) (Cent. Dict. 1891.)
▪ III. † tern, v. Obs.
Also 5 teern.
[ad. med.L. tern-āre ? to treble: cf. F. terner ‘to throw a tre[y] or three’ (Cotgr. 1611).]
? To throw a tern or terns in dice playing. Hence † terned ppl. a., † ˈterning vbl. n.
c1440Promp. Parv. 489/2 Ternyd, in pley or oþer thyngys (S. teernyt in pley or other lyk), ternatus. Ternyn, yn gamys pleyynge, terno. Ternynge, ternatus, ternacio.
▪ IV. tern
see terne a.1; obs. var. turn v. and n. |