kirn
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Scots[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English kyrne; compare Old Norse kirna (“churn”).[1]
Alternative forms[edit]
Noun[edit]
kirn (plural kirns)
- a churn
Verb[edit]
kirn (third-person singular simple present kirns, present participle kirnin, simple past kirnt, past participle kirnt)
- to churn (as milk into butter)
- 1855, Hew Ainslie, “Croon to a Kyle cow”, in Scottish Songs, Ballads, and Poems, page 149:
- Be it warm / Be it cauld / Be it cream’d / Be it kirn’d […] / It’s welcome aye to Jock
- Whether it’s warm or cold, creamed or churned, [milk] is indeed welcome to Jock
- to churn up, stir, mix
- kirn with the pistle and mortar
- mix with a mortar and pestle
Etymology 2[edit]
Uncertain. Perhaps from Old English cyrnel (“kernel, grain”), with meaning shifted or broadened from the seed to the whole crop plant. Compare curn (“a grain, a particle”).[3]
Noun[edit]
kirn (plural kirns)
- a celebration to mark the end of the harvest season; (by extension) an ending or farewell celebration
- Synonym: foy
- the last sheaf or bit of corn harvested
See also[edit]
- clyack (“the last sheaf harvested; the end of the harvest”)
- hare (“the last sheaf harvested”)
- maiden (“the last sheaf harvested, plaited and decorated with ribbons”)
References[edit]
- ^ “kirn, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.
- ^ “kirn, n.1, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
- ^ “kirn, n.2” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
