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

She sat rocking herself to and fro in her sorrow, while the old woman threw the fern seed, picked, alas! too late, into the driftwood fire.

From A Fortunate Term by Brazil, Angela

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

From Poems by Cawein, Madison Julius

So Shakespeare has it, too, in his play of "1 Henry IV.," act ii. scene 1: "We have the receipt of fern seed, we walk invisible."

From The South Isles of Aran by Burke, Oliver J.

"But on St. John's mysterious night, Confest the mystic fern seed fell."

From The Fern Lover's Companion A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada by Tilton, George Henry

The last, by endowing Value with the gift of fern seed and enabling it to walk invisible, turned the flank of the baronial tariff-system and made the roads safe for the great liberalizer Commerce.

From Among My Books Second Series by Lowell, James Russell