fern seed

American  

noun

1. the spores of ferns, formerly supposed to have the power to make persons invisible.

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fern seed British  

noun

1. the minute particles by which ferns reproduce themselves, formerly thought to be invisible. Possession of them was thought to make a person invisible

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Etymology

Origin of fern seed

First recorded in 1590–1600

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fern seed

By so doing the mystic fern seed may be obtained, which possesses the strength of thirty or forty men.

From The Folk-lore of Plants by Dyer, T. F. Thiselton (Thomas Firminger Thiselton)

My, my, I was forgetting all about the children and the mysterious fern seed.

From The White Christmas and other Merry Christmas Plays by Hare, Walter Ben

Coral, rhinoceros-horn, fern seed, the mandrake, &c., were likewise connected with the moon-goddess and credited with nocturnal luminosity.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 1: Deposition to Eberswalde by Various

"We have the receipt of fern seed: we walk invisible."

From Poems by Cawein, Madison Julius

Whether they are three or thretty or a hunder surpasses my knowledge, but they hae got the secret o' the fern seed and walk about invisible.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 383, September 1847 by Various