fenny, spoiled with damp, mouldy. Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 44; ‘Fenny, mouldy as fenny cheese’, Worlidge, Ray’s English Words, 1691. In prov. use (EDD.). OE. fynig. See [finewed].
fensive, ‘defensive’, capable of defence. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 301; Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 4 (st. 4 from end).
fere, feere, a companion, mate, spouse. Titus Andron. iv. 1. 89. Often spelt pheer, pheere, as in Spenser, Muse of Thestylis, 100. ME. fere (Chaucer). OE. ge-fēra, a companion.
ferk; See [firk] (2).
ferle, a ‘ferule’; a rod, sceptre; ‘The one of knight-hoode bare the ferle’, Mirror for Mag., Mortimer, st. 9.
ferme, a lodging; ‘His sinfull sowle with desperate disdaine Out of her fleshly ferme fled to the place of paine’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 23.
ferrandine; see [farandine].
ferrary, farriery, the art of working in iron. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xiv. 141.
ferrour, ‘farrier’. Skelton (ed. Dyce, i. 24). OF. ferrier (Godefroy).
ferse, the piece now known as the ‘queen’ in chess. Surrey, To the Lady that scorned, 12, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 21; ‘Fers, The Queen at Chess-play’, Bullokar. ME. fers (Chaucer, Book Duch., 654). OF. fierce, also, fierge (Roman Rose), Med. L. fercia (Ducange). Of Persian origin, ferzên, prop. ‘wise man’, ‘counsellor’, cp. Arab, firzân, queen in chess.