quern

[kwurn]

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

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.
Children's Literature
Charles Madison Curry
There stood his sisters by the quern, For the high-noon cakes they needs must earn.
Poems by the Way
William Morris
"It is the women singing and grinding at the quern," she said, and her feet went faster.
The Basket Woman
Mary Austin
In the Norse story of Frodi's quern, the myth assumes a whimsical shape.
Myths and Myth-Makers
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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for quern

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.)).