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kern

noun
/kɜːn/UK/kɝn/US

Etymology

From Middle English curn, cooren, variant forms of Middle English corn, see English corn and also Dutch kern, Old High German kerno, cherno, Middle High German kerne, kern, German Kern (“core, kernel”), Old Norse kjarni, Icelandic kjarni, Danish kjerne, Swedish kärna (“core, kernel”); see also kernel.

  1. derived from ceithern
  2. inherited from kerne

Definitions

  1. A corn

    A corn; grain; kernel.

  2. The last handful or sheaf reaped at the harvest.

  3. The harvest home.

  4. ›+ 11 more definitions

    1. A doll or figurine raised in celebration of a successful harvest

      A doll or figurine raised in celebration of a successful harvest; kern-baby.

    2. Any part of a letter which extends into the space used by another letter.

    3. To adjust the horizontal space between selected pairs of letters (characters or glyphs)

      To adjust the horizontal space between selected pairs of letters (characters or glyphs); to perform such adjustments to a portion of text, according to preset rules.

      • If you need to kern anything beyond the most commonly used pairs, you can use applications software such as Adobe PageMaker to customize pairs.
      • Especially consider kerning if you are printing on a relatively high-resolution printer, such as a 600-dpi (dots per inch) laser printer.
      • Remember, the goal of kerning is to make letter pairs look natural, not necessarily to minimize letterspaces.

    4. A light-armed foot soldier of the ancient militia of Ireland and Scotland

      A light-armed foot soldier of the ancient militia of Ireland and Scotland; in archaic contexts often used as a term of contempt.

      • O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off and in your strait strossers.
      • ‘O haste thee, and from Allan learn / If thou mayst trust yon wily kern.’
      • There he entertained Shan O'Neil, a famous, turbulent chief from Ireland, who late in this year visited Elizabeth's Court, where his train of kerns and gallowglasses, clothed in linen kilts dyed with saffron, made a great impression.

    5. A boor

      A boor; a low person.

      • To think that such a lowly kern Should dare to dream to be allied By wedlock to a royal bairn!
      • The kern was much puzzled, for never before had he known food bought or sold.

    6. An idler

      An idler; a vagabond.

      • The villain kernes Who keep me fettered here.

    7. Alternative form of quern.

    8. A churn.

    9. A surname.

    10. An unincorporated community in Macon County, Missouri, United States.

    11. A river in California, United States.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for kern. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA