giant fern
1
6.9
- noun
- US
:
helecho gigante
- On Samosir Island, we trekked along dirt tracks through giant ferns to visit the Karo Batak villages dotting the hills.
Examples
-
We have huge boulders, ancient trees, and giant ferns.
Blog text (32) -
On Samosir Island, we trekked along dirt tracks through giant ferns to visit the Karo Batak villages dotting the hills.
Fiction book (1997) -
He indicated a metal path that struck off into green wilderness, over streaming swamp, among giant ferns and palms.
-
Walking back to the bike, cochlear in her pocket, she sees giant ferns bouncing in the rain and notices the extreme green of a bed of moss.
Synonyms
A very large fern with huge leaves that grows in wet tropical forests
A very large fern that grows in wet tropical forests
A large spreading fern that forms dense patches up to 18 feet high in the Pacific and China
A fern with large leaves that grows on other plants in Taiwan and the Philippines
A low tree fern with large leaves that grows in Hawaiian rainforests and lava flows
A large fern with tall, upright leaves that grows in rainforests
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a very large fern' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'giant' (very large) with 'fern' (a type of plant). This simple adjective + noun composition follows standard, cross-linguistically common patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Giant fern is a literal name: giant means 'very large' and fern means 'a leafy plant' that grows in wet Pacific forests. These plants have very long leaves that can shelter small animals, so the name simply describes a 'very large type of fern'.