Quern

//kwɝn// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A mill for grinding corn, especially a handmill made of two circular stones.

    "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."

  2. 2
    a primitive stone mill for grinding corn by hand wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To grind; to use a quern. transitive

    "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."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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 Tocharian B kärweñe, Lithuanian girna, Russian жёрнов (žórnov, “millstone”).

Etymology 2

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 Tocharian B kärweñe, Lithuanian girna, Russian жёрнов (žórnov, “millstone”).

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