Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
quern [kwurn] ExamplesWord Origin noun
- a primitive, hand-operated mill for grinding grain.
Origin of quern before 950; Middle English; Old English cweorn; akin to Old Norse kvern hand-mill Examples from the Web for quern Historical Examples of quern
He asked him for heaven’s sake to take back the quern, and that at once.
Charles Madison Curry
There stood his sisters by the quern, For the high-noon cakes they needs must earn.
William Morris
“It is the women singing and grinding at the quern,” she said, and her feet went faster.
Mary Austin
In the Norse story of Frodi’s quern, the myth assumes a whimsical shape.
John Fiske
But angels used to grind at the quern for Ciaran’s sake on the day that was his.
The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran
Anonymous
British Dictionary definitions for quern quern noun
- a stone hand mill for grinding corn
Word Origin for quern Old English cweorn; related to Old Frisian quern, Old High German kurn, Old Norse kverna, Gothic quairnus millstone Word Origin and History for quern n.
Old English cweorn “hand-mill, mill,” from PIE *gwere-na- “millstone” (cf. Old Norse kvern, Old Frisian quern, Old High German quirn, Gothic quirnus; Sanskrit grava “crushing stone;” Lithuanian girna “millstone,” girnos “hand mills;” Old Church Slavonic zrunuvi “mills;” Welsh brevan “hand mill”), suffixed form of root *gwere- “heavy” (see grave (adj.)).