quern
UK /kwɜːn/ · US /kwɝn/ noun, verb
Forms querns querning querned curn kern quirn
- noun A mill for grinding corn, especially a handmill made of two circular stones.
- verb (transitive) To grind; to use a quern.
Etymology
From Middle English quern, cwerne, from Old English cweorn (“quern, hand-mill, mill”), from Proto-Germanic *kwernō (“millstone”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂wō (“heavy stone”), from *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”). Cognate with Swedish kvarn, Tocharian B kärweñe, Lithuanian girna, Russian жёрнов (žórnov, “millstone”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A mill for grinding grain, the upper stone of which was turned by hand; --used before the invention of windmills and watermills.
Etymology [AS. cweorn, cwyrn; akin to D. kweern, OHG. quirn, Icel. kvern, Sw. qvarn, Dan. quærn, Goth. qairnus (in asiluqaírnus), Lith. qìrnos, and perh. E. corn.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “quern”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details