quern
/kwɝn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.59 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "She is shaking in ingredients from various small bottles and querns produced from the pockets of her robes, and from the drawer in the wooden table."
- "MacKie has noted that querns that were in use in Scotland up to the present day were about 450mm—600mm in diameter and that the lower stone was completely perforated to make it adjustable (MacKie 1987, 5)."
- "Not surprisingly, different cultures discovered the suitability of various rock types for manufacturing querns and millstones."
- "He could almost set aside the longing for Eyjan that ever querned within him—almost—in this place so utterly sundered from everything of hers."
- "For women he thought these should include combing, spinning, querning, leather and fur-working and be associated with finds of beads, bracelets and perforated teeth."
- "Beyond this now lay only chaos and a querning sea. Time's millstones, grinding bones for bread."
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *gʷreh₂-, quern, cweorn, *kwernō, *gʷréh₂wō
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kwɝn/
- British English: /kwɜːn/