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Terne

//tɜːn// adj, noun

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Colourless, drab, dull.
Noun
  1. 1
    An alloy coating made of lead and tin (or, more recently, zinc and tin), often with some antimony, used to cover iron or steel. also, attributive, countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    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”). alt-of, obsolete
  3. 3
    Synonym of terneplate (“thin iron or steel sheeting coated with this alloy”). countable, uncountable

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French terne, 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”). Doublet of dern.

Etymology 2

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

Etymology 3

A variant of tern.

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