| 释义 |
▪ I. kern, kerne, n.1|kɜːn|
Forms: 4– kerne, 6 karn(e, 6–8 kearne, 6– kern.
[c gray][ad. Ir. ceithern, (ceatharn), pronounced (ˈkehərn[/c]) or |ˈkeərn|, OIr. ceitern, OCelt. keterna, a band of foot-soldiers; adopted in Eng. not only in its collective sense, but also to denote an individual soldier, = the Irish ceithearnach, ceatharnach, whence kernaugh. Cf.cateran, representing an adoption of ceithern or the synonymous Sc. Gael. ceatharn, at a time when the dental was still pronounced.
Stanyhurst (Descr. Irel. viii.) gives a fanciful derivation of ceithern from ceath or cith shower, and ifrinn hell. ‘Kerne signifieth (as noble men of deepe iudgement informed me) a shower of hell, because they are taken for no better than for rakehels.’ In later Irish cearn (for ceatharn) is used in the sense of ‘banditti’.]
1. Hist. A light-armed Irish foot-soldier (cf. quot. 1600); one of the poorer class among the ‘wild Irish’, from whom such soldiers were drawn. (Sometimes applied to Scottish Highlanders.)
Stanyhurst divides the followers of an Irish chief into five classes—daltins or boys, grooms, kerns, gallowglasses, and horsemen.
1351Ordin. Dubl. & Kilk. ii. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 257 Si nul..ne tiegne kernes, hobelours ne udives gentz en terre. Ibid., Que kerne ou nul altre prenge nul manere des vitailles ou altre biens. 1358Ord Hibern., 31 Edw. III, m. 11, 12 (Blount Law Dict.) Nec non de illis qui dicuntur homines ociosi, et malefactoribus, qui etiam Kernys dicuntur. 1423Rolls Parlt. IV. 199/1 What tyme the same Kernes hadde hym in governance, they bette hym. 1556W. Towrson in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 112 The South part of Irelande..The country people which were wilde Kernes. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, ii. i. 156 Now for our Irish warres, We must supplant those rough rug-headed Kernes, Which liue like venom. 1600J. Dymmok Ireland (1843) 7 The kerne is a kinde of footeman, sleightly armed with a sworde, a targett of woode, or a bow and sheafe of arrows with barbed heades, or els 3 dartes. 1700Dryden Fables Ded. 58 Hibernia, prostrate at your feet... The sturdy kerns in due subjection stand. 1810Scott Lady of L. v. xiv, Soars thy presumption then so high Because a wretched kern ye slew? 1873Dixon Two Queens I. iv. viii. 227 He was..bribing Irish kernes to rise against the English rule.
b. In collective sense; † orig. a troop or band of Irish foot-soldiers (obs.).
1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 133 He slowe the same Waltere wyth a grete kerne dyscomfitid. 1550Acts Privy Counc. Eng. (1891) III. 79 To paie the waiges of the Kerne being at Chester and at London. 1612Davies Why Ireland, etc. (1787) 182 Horsemen and kern should not be imposed upon the common people, to be fed and maintained by them. 1633T. Stafford Pac. Hib. i. iv. (1810) 58 Iohn Fitz Thomas accompanied with one hundred Kerne. 1813Scott Rokeby v. x, I've seen a ring of rugged kerne, With aspects shaggy, wild, and stern. 1872Deeside Tales 125 (E.D.D.) The kern were makan' aff wi' a stirkie frae Rhineton as well.
2. transf. A rustic, peasant, boor; † contemptuously vagabond, rascal (obs.). Now rare.
1553N. Grimalde Cicero's Offices ii. (1558) 82 He commaunded a kerne and hym also..be prynted with Thracean markes, to goo beefore with a drawne swoorde. 1582Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 43 What curst Myrmidones, what karne of canckred Vlisses? 1600Holland Livy iii. lxix. 135 The countrie kernes that fled (to Rome,)..reported more foule and cruell outrages. 1656Blount Glossogr. s.v., We take a Kern most commonly for a Farmer or Country Bumpkin. 1856W. E. Aytoun Bothwell (1857) 2 The villain kernes Who keep me fettered here.
▪ II. kern, n.2
[A word of late appearance: related to kern v.1 and kernel. Cf. MDu. kern(e, (Du. kern), OHG. cherno (MHG. kerne, G. kern), ON. kjarni (Da. kærne, Sw. kärna) kernel, pip, etc.; but it may repr. an OE. *cyrne; cf. Norw. kyrne grain, and see curn n.]
†1. Kernel (of a nut). Obs. rare.
1570Levins Manip. 81/39 Kerne of a nut, nucleus.
2. A grain (of wheat, sand, etc.). rare. Hence kern-stone, ? coarse-grained sandstone; or perh. oolite.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Kern-stone, The little grains of sand are still visible in all parts of this stone, and are what induced the people to call it kern stone, as they call these kerns, or kernels. 1867Rock Jim an' Nell cxiii, With that Jones hullèd out a kern. 1880Blackmore Mary Anerley I. 57 Grained with kerns of maxim'd thought.
3. Meteorol. [abstracted from G. kernzähler kern (nucleus) counter (A. Wigand 1913, in Meteorol. Zeitschr. XXX. 13).] A particle which acts as a condensation nucleus in a kern counter, a device in which a sample of air is supersaturated and condensation nuclei made visible and collected for counting: orig. intended to measure the concentration of condensation nuclei in the air, but now known to respond to particles too small to act as such under atmospheric conditions.
1941Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLV. 72 The Aitken nucleus or ‘kern’ counter determines the number of nuclei in an air sample by subjecting it to a rapid expansion. This causes a considerable degree of supersaturation, and the drops which form around each nucleus fall on to a ruled slide where they may be counted. 1951H. G. Houghton in T. F. Malone Compendium Meteorol. 165/2 The sweeping action of the dust particles on the kerns. 1954J. C. Johnson Physical Meteorol. vii. 206 These dusts, or kerns, as they are called, which make up most of the suspensoids in the atmosphere and are important for their light scattering effects on visibility, contribute little or nothing to the condensation process. Ibid. 207 Dust counts made by instruments such as the Aitken kern counter have little correlation with the number of active condensation nuclei in the atmosphere. 1967R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Atmospheric Sci. 84/2 Such nuclei counters (or kern counters..) have some distinct advantages.
▪ III. kern, n.3 Printing.|kɜːn|
[For *carn, a. F. carne ‘projecting angle, nib of a quill pen’, a northern form (for *charne):—L. cardinem hinge.]
A part of a metal type projecting beyond the body or shank, as the curled head of f and tail of j, as formerly made, and parts of some italic letters. (Cf. kerned ppl. a.2)
1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xix. ⁋ 7 Every next Letter is turned with its Nick downwards, that the Kern of each Letter may lie over the Beard of its next. 1824J. Johnson Typogr. II. 655 Kern of a Letter, that part which hangs over the body or shank.
▪ IV. kern, v.1|kɜːn|
Now chiefly dial. Forms: 3–4 curne, 4 kurne, 4–7 kerne, 7 kearn, (quern), 7– kern.
[ME. kerne, curne (cf. G. körnen, kürnen, Norw. kyrna), app. repr. OE. *cyrnan:—OTeut. *kurnjan, f. kurno-: see corn n.1
An OE. cyrnian is app. implied in the obscure gloss ᵹecyrnode (cambas) in Napier's O.E. Glosses 26/15.]
1. intr. Of corn: To form the hard grains in the ear, to seed; = corn v. 6. Also of fruit: To set.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 10044 Þe þridde time þo grene corn in somer ssolde curne. 1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 141 Reyne..makyth herbis..cornys, treis and rootes sprynge, blowe, and kerne. 1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Granar, to kerne as corne doth, in grana durescere. 1699Poor Man's Plea 5 The continued good Weather..gave the Corn so much time to knit and kearn, as they call it. 1744–50W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. III. i. 150 Unless wheat blooms well, it cannot kern well. 1880W. Cornwall Gloss. s.v. Kerned, ‘The apple blowths have kerned’. 1897Blackmore Dariel 63 While the corn began to kern.
†b. trans. To make into hard grains. Obs.
a1571Jewel Serm. Matt. ix. 37–8 The corn..was ripened, and kerned by the Spirit of God. a1722Lisle Husb. (1752) 159, I told in those chests five compleat grains full kerned.
†2. trans. To cause to granulate; to make (salt) into grains; = corn v. 1. Obs.
1600Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 147 Salt kerned on the rocks very white. 1628The World Enc. by Sir F. Drake 9 Salt..is increased upon the sands by the flowing of the sea, and the heate of the Sunne kerning the same. 1726G. Roberts 4 Years' Voy. 262 If too deep, those Hollows..could not, in so short time, kern any Salt.
b. To cover with crystalline grains of salt; to salt (meat); = corn v. 3. Obs. exc. dial.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 333 note, If..a bird toucheth it with her wings they are kerned with salt. 1687Rycaut Hist. Turkes II. 101 Masts, Yards, and Decks were querned with a white Salt. 1721Bailey, To Kern, to corn, to salt or powder, as Beef, Pork, etc. 1886Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. s.v. Kerned, That'll be a beautiful bit when he's well a kerned—not to zalt.
c. intr. Of salt, sugar, etc.: To crystallize in grains; to granulate; = corn v. 2. Obs. exc. dial.
1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 90 A liquor..which they call Temper, without which, the Sugar would continue a Clammy substance and never kerne. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. iii. 56 The Salt begins to kern, or grain, in April. 1753in Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. [of salt]. 1880W. Cornwall Gloss. s.v. Kerned, Metal fixed or concreted around quartz is also said ‘to have kerned’.
¶ Halliwell's kerne ‘to sow with corn’, copied by later Dicts., is an error: in Purvey's Isa. xxviii. 24, misquoted by him, the correct reading is kerue, carve. The old ed. of Roland & V. has also kerne for kerue in line 312. So in various other cases.
▪ V. kern, v.2 Printing.|kɜːn|
[f. kern n.3]
trans. To furnish (a type) with a kern; to make a kern on. Hence ˈkerner, a workman who makes or adjusts kerned type.
1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xix. ⁋5 Amongst the Italick-Letters many are to be Kern'd, some only on one side, and some both sides. The Kern'd-Letters are such as have part of their Face hanging over one side or both sides of their Shanck. Ibid. xiii. ⁋4 They..left the Letter-Kerner, after the Letter was Cast, to Kern away the Sholdering. 1824J. Johnson Typogr. II. 23 Some founders have been more liberal than others in kerning letters. 1865Standard, Police News (May) [A witness described himself as a kerner in Messrs..'s letter foundry].
▪ VI. kern
variant of kirn n.1, n.2, and v. |