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What's the difference between a fen and a dale? Are these words used precisely at all?

EDIT: My question comes from this Kipling poem, The Spirit of England; if you'll notice, each couplet, plain and hill, towns and downs seem to be opposing, and I was wondering if that were true for woodland and fen and dale:

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Off Topic: Are you on a questions rampage? :D – Alenanno Apr 29 '11 at 11:09
These are not even slightly similar. – Marcin Apr 29 '11 at 13:34

3 Answers

up vote 27 down vote accepted

From Wikipedia regarding dale:

A dale is a valley. The word dale comes from Old English dael and is related to Old Norse dalr.

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And fen:

A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater.

Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients. They support a wide range of animals and plants, many of which are tall marsh plants growing closely together.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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Haha, answers in pictures, guaranteed hit :) – Benjol Apr 29 '11 at 12:01
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Often worth a thousand words. ;) – Mr. Disappointment Apr 29 '11 at 12:05
+1 not for the pictures, but for the etymology. Background information is always good. – Tynam Apr 29 '11 at 16:49
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Arguably, on a site dedicated to linguistic expression, resorting to images is a cop-out. :) – Tom Auger Apr 30 '11 at 3:04
up vote 10 down vote

They are both related to geography but have different meanings and are also somewhat geographically specific.

A fen is a type of wetland. In Eastern England there is an area known as The Fens that although now largely drained typified this sort of geographical feature.

Dale means valley and is part of many place names, mostly in the North of Britain. The Yorkshire Dales is an upland region in Northern England.

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+1, I grew up in The Fens :) – Benjol Apr 29 '11 at 12:00
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Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. – Malvolio Apr 29 '11 at 17:10
up vote 5 down vote

A fen is wetland, but it doen't have to be particularly lower than the surrounding land. A dale is a valley, and it doesn't have to be wet.

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