1580s as a type of knitted cloth; 1842 as a breed of cattle; both from Jersey, one of the Channel Islands. Its name is said to be a corruption of Latin Caesarea, the Roman name for the island (or another near it), influenced by Old English ey "island" (see island); but it is perhaps rather a Viking name (perhaps meaning "Geirr's island").

The meaning "woolen knitted close-fitting tunic," especially one worn during sporting events, is from 1845. In American English, short for New Jersey from 1758. Related: Jerseyman.

Old English fearn "fern," from Proto-Germanic *farno- (source also of Old Saxon farn, Middle Dutch vaern, Dutch varen, Old High German farn, German Farn). Watkins and other sources propose an etymology on the notion of "having feathery fronds" from a possible PIE *por-no- "feather, wing" (source also of Sanskrit parnam "feather, leaf;" Lithuanian papartis "fern;" Russian paporot'; Greek pteris "fern"), a proposed suffixed form of the root *per- (2) "to lead, pass over," on the notion of "that which carries a bird in flight."

The plant's ability to appear as if from nothing accounts for the ancient belief that fern seeds conferred invisibility (1590s). Filicology "science or study of ferns" (1848) is from Latin filix "fern."

"the study of ferns as a branch of botany," 1850, with -logy + from Greek pteris "fern, bracken," probably originally "feather plant," so called for the form of the leaves, and related to pteron "wing" (from PIE root *pet- "to rush, to fly"). Compare fern, also supposed to be descended from a root meaning "feather." Related: Pteridologist (1845).

1620s, an old measure of land in Holland (hence also in South Africa and colonial New York and New Jersey), roughly two acres but sometimes less, probably identical with Dutch morgen "morning" (see morn) and meaning "the amount of land one man can plow in a morning."

town in New Jersey, founded 1696 as Stony Brook, named for the Long Island home of one of the first settlers; renamed 1724 to honor Prince George, later George II of England (1683-1760). The university there was founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey; it moved to Newark in 1747, then to Princeton in 1756. It was renamed Princeton University in 1896. Related: Princetonian.