▪ I. kern, kerne, n.1
(kɜːn)
Forms: 4– kerne, 6 karn(e, 6–8 kearne, 6– kern.
[ad. Ir. ceithern, (ceatharn), pronounced (ˈkehərn) or (ˈkeərn), OIr. ceitern, OCelt. keterna, a band of foot-soldiers; adopted in Eng. not only in its collective sense, but also to denote an individual soldier, = the Irish ceithearnach, ceatharnach, whence kernaugh. Cf.cateran, representing an adoption of ceithern or the synonymous Sc. Gael. ceatharn, at a time when the dental was still pronounced.
Stanyhurst (Descr. Irel. viii.) gives a fanciful derivation of ceithern from ceath or cith shower, and ifrinn hell. ‘Kerne signifieth (as noble men of deepe iudgement informed me) a shower of hell, because they are taken for no better than for rakehels.’ In later Irish cearn (for ceatharn) is used in the sense of ‘banditti’.]
1. Hist. A light-armed Irish foot-soldier (cf. quot. 1600); one of the poorer class among the ‘wild Irish’, from whom such soldiers were drawn. (Sometimes applied to Scottish Highlanders.)
Stanyhurst divides the followers of an Irish chief into five classes—daltins or boys, grooms, kerns, gallowglasses, and horsemen.
| 1351 Ordin. Dubl. & Kilk. ii. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 257 Si nul..ne tiegne kernes, hobelours ne udives gentz en terre. Ibid., Que kerne ou nul altre prenge nul manere des vitailles ou altre biens. 1358 Ord Hibern., 31 Edw. III, m. 11, 12 (Blount Law Dict.) Nec non de illis qui dicuntur homines ociosi, et malefactoribus, qui etiam Kernys dicuntur. 1423 Rolls Parlt. IV. 199/1 What tyme the same Kernes hadde hym in governance, they bette hym. 1556 W. Towrson in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 112 The South part of Irelande..The country people which were wilde Kernes. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, ii. i. 156 Now for our Irish warres, We must supplant those rough rug-headed Kernes, Which liue like venom. 1600 J. Dymmok Ireland (1843) 7 The kerne is a kinde of footeman, sleightly armed with a sworde, a targett of woode, or a bow and sheafe of arrows with barbed heades, or els 3 dartes. 1700 Dryden Fables Ded. 58 Hibernia, prostrate at your feet... The sturdy kerns in due subjection stand. 1810 Scott Lady of L. v. xiv, Soars thy presumption then so high Because a wretched kern ye slew? 1873 Dixon Two Queens I. iv. viii. 227 He was..bribing Irish kernes to rise against the English rule. |
b. In collective sense; † orig. a troop or band of Irish foot-soldiers (obs.).
| 1422 tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 133 He slowe the same Waltere wyth a grete kerne dyscomfitid. 1550 Acts Privy Counc. Eng. (1891) III. 79 To paie the waiges of the Kerne being at Chester and at London. 1612 Davies Why Ireland, etc. (1787) 182 Horsemen and kern should not be imposed upon the common people, to be fed and maintained by them. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. i. iv. (1810) 58 Iohn Fitz Thomas accompanied with one hundred Kerne. 1813 Scott Rokeby v. x, I've seen a ring of rugged kerne, With aspects shaggy, wild, and stern. 1872 Deeside Tales 125 (E.D.D.) The kern were makan' aff wi' a stirkie frae Rhineton as well. |
2. transf. A rustic, peasant, boor; † contemptuously vagabond, rascal (obs.). Now rare.
| 1553 N. Grimalde Cicero's Offices ii. (1558) 82 He commaunded a kerne and hym also..be prynted with Thracean markes, to goo beefore with a drawne swoorde. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 43 What curst Myrmidones, what karne of canckred Vlisses? 1600 Holland Livy iii. lxix. 135 The countrie kernes that fled (to Rome,)..reported more foule and cruell outrages. 1656 Blount Glossogr. s.v., We take a Kern most commonly for a Farmer or Country Bumpkin. 1856 W. E. Aytoun Bothwell (1857) 2 The villain kernes Who keep me fettered here. |
▪ II. kern, n.2
[A word of late appearance: related to kern v.1 and kernel. Cf. MDu. kern(e, (Du. kern), OHG. cherno (MHG. kerne, G. kern), ON. kjarni (Da. kærne, Sw. kärna) kernel, pip, etc.; but it may repr. an OE. *cyrne; cf. Norw. kyrne grain, and see curn n.]
† 1. Kernel (of a nut). Obs. rare.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 81/39 Kerne of a nut, nucleus. |
2. A grain (of wheat, sand, etc.). rare. Hence kern-stone, ? coarse-grained sandstone; or perh. oolite.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Kern-stone, The little grains of sand are still visible in all parts of this stone, and are what induced the people to call it kern stone, as they call these kerns, or kernels. 1867 Rock Jim an' Nell cxiii, With that Jones hullèd out a kern. 1880 Blackmore Mary Anerley I. 57 Grained with kerns of maxim'd thought. |
3. Meteorol. [abstracted from G. kernzähler kern (nucleus) counter (A. Wigand 1913, in Meteorol. Zeitschr. XXX. 13).] A particle which acts as a condensation nucleus in a kern counter, a device in which a sample of air is supersaturated and condensation nuclei made visible and collected for counting: orig. intended to measure the concentration of condensation nuclei in the air, but now known to respond to particles too small to act as such under atmospheric conditions.
| 1941 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLV. 72 The Aitken nucleus or ‘kern’ counter determines the number of nuclei in an air sample by subjecting it to a rapid expansion. This causes a considerable degree of supersaturation, and the drops which form around each nucleus fall on to a ruled slide where they may be counted. 1951 H. G. Houghton in T. F. Malone Compendium Meteorol. 165/2 The sweeping action of the dust particles on the kerns. 1954 J. C. Johnson Physical Meteorol. vii. 206 These dusts, or kerns, as they are called, which make up most of the suspensoids in the atmosphere and are important for their light scattering effects on visibility, contribute little or nothing to the condensation process. Ibid. 207 Dust counts made by instruments such as the Aitken kern counter have little correlation with the number of active condensation nuclei in the atmosphere. 1967 R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Atmospheric Sci. 84/2 Such nuclei counters (or kern counters..) have some distinct advantages. |
▪ III. kern, n.3 Printing.
(kɜːn)
[For *carn, a. F. carne ‘projecting angle, nib of a quill pen’, a northern form (for *charne):—L. cardinem hinge.]
A part of a metal type projecting beyond the body or shank, as the curled head of f and tail of j, as formerly made, and parts of some italic letters. (Cf. kerned ppl. a.2)
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xix. ¶ 7 Every next Letter is turned with its Nick downwards, that the Kern of each Letter may lie over the Beard of its next. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. 655 Kern of a Letter, that part which hangs over the body or shank. |
▪ IV. kern, v.1
(kɜːn)
Now chiefly dial. Forms: 3–4 curne, 4 kurne, 4–7 kerne, 7 kearn, (quern), 7– kern.
[ME. kerne, curne (cf. G. körnen, kürnen, Norw. kyrna), app. repr. OE. *cyrnan:—OTeut. *kurnjan, f. kurno-: see corn n.1
An OE. cyrnian is app. implied in the obscure gloss ᵹecyrnode (cambas) in Napier's O.E. Glosses 26/15.]
1. intr. Of corn: To form the hard grains in the ear, to seed; = corn v. 6. Also of fruit: To set.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 10044 Þe þridde time þo grene corn in somer ssolde curne. 1422 tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 141 Reyne..makyth herbis..cornys, treis and rootes sprynge, blowe, and kerne. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Granar, to kerne as corne doth, in grana durescere. 1699 Poor Man's Plea 5 The continued good Weather..gave the Corn so much time to knit and kearn, as they call it. 1744–50 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. III. i. 150 Unless wheat blooms well, it cannot kern well. 1880 W. Cornwall Gloss. s.v. Kerned, ‘The apple blowths have kerned’. 1897 Blackmore Dariel 63 While the corn began to kern. |
† b. trans. To make into hard grains. Obs.
| a 1571 Jewel Serm. Matt. ix. 37–8 The corn..was ripened, and kerned by the Spirit of God. a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1752) 159, I told in those chests five compleat grains full kerned. |
† 2. trans. To cause to granulate; to make (salt) into grains; = corn v. 1. Obs.
| 1600 Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 147 Salt kerned on the rocks very white. 1628 The World Enc. by Sir F. Drake 9 Salt..is increased upon the sands by the flowing of the sea, and the heate of the Sunne kerning the same. 1726 G. Roberts 4 Years' Voy. 262 If too deep, those Hollows..could not, in so short time, kern any Salt. |
b. To cover with crystalline grains of salt; to salt (meat); = corn v. 3. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 333 note, If..a bird toucheth it with her wings they are kerned with salt. 1687 Rycaut Hist. Turkes II. 101 Masts, Yards, and Decks were querned with a white Salt. 1721 Bailey, To Kern, to corn, to salt or powder, as Beef, Pork, etc. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. s.v. Kerned, That'll be a beautiful bit when he's well a kerned—not to zalt. |
c. intr. Of salt, sugar, etc.: To crystallize in grains; to granulate; = corn v. 2. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 90 A liquor..which they call Temper, without which, the Sugar would continue a Clammy substance and never kerne. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. iii. 56 The Salt begins to kern, or grain, in April. 1753 in Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. [of salt]. 1880 W. Cornwall Gloss. s.v. Kerned, Metal fixed or concreted around quartz is also said ‘to have kerned’. |
¶ Halliwell's kerne ‘to sow with corn’, copied by later Dicts., is an error: in Purvey's Isa. xxviii. 24, misquoted by him, the correct reading is kerue, carve. The old ed. of Roland & V. has also kerne for kerue in line 312. So in various other cases.
▪ V. kern, v.2 Printing.
(kɜːn)
[f. kern n.3]
trans. To furnish (a type) with a kern; to make a kern on. Hence ˈkerner, a workman who makes or adjusts kerned type.
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xix. ¶5 Amongst the Italick-Letters many are to be Kern'd, some only on one side, and some both sides. The Kern'd-Letters are such as have part of their Face hanging over one side or both sides of their Shanck. Ibid. xiii. ¶4 They..left the Letter-Kerner, after the Letter was Cast, to Kern away the Sholdering. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. 23 Some founders have been more liberal than others in kerning letters. 1865 Standard, Police News (May) [A witness described himself as a kerner in Messrs..'s letter foundry]. |
▪ VI. kern
variant of kirn n.1, n.2, and v.