hart's-tongue

American  

[hahrts-tuhng] / ˈhɑrtsˌtʌŋ /

Or harts-tongue

noun

1. a fern, Phyllitis scolopendrium, having long, leathery, wavy-edged leaves.

---

hart's-tongue British  

noun

1. an evergreen Eurasian fern, Asplenium scolopendrium, with narrow undivided fronds bearing rows of sori: family Polypodiaceae

---

Etymology

Origin of hart's-tongue

First recorded in 1275–1325, hart's-tongue is from Middle English hertis tonge. See hart, 's ¹, tongue

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hart's-tongue

The Lieutenant's peril, Bonne's suspense, the Abbess--all were forgotten until the moon rose above the trees and flung a chequered light on the dark moss and hart's-tongue and harebells about the lovers' feet.

From The Abbess Of Vlaye by Weyman, Stanley J.

This was a wide highway, somewhat indefinite as to its edges, which were fringed irregularly with hart's-tongue and other ferns, or clumped with low brambles bearing abundant promise of a future blackberry harvest.

From The Tree of Knowledge A Novel by Reynolds, Mrs. Baillie

The hart’s-tongue ferns vibrated, swinging slightly, as the weight of the drops on them now bore them down and now slipped off, and let them up.

From Bevis The Story of a Boy by Jefferies, Richard

This well bubbles up under a low vault scooped in the bank by the footpath and hung with hart's-tongue ferns.

From The Delectable Duchy by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir

There was a lining of green moss near the top, and nearer still the hart's-tongue fern.

From Jude the Obscure by Hardy, Thomas