yearn
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
yearn¹
- /jɜːn/ UK
- /jɝn/ US
Sounds like yern · Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n
Where it comes from
The verb is derived from Middle English yernen, yern (“to express or feel desire; to desire, long or wish for; to lust after; to ask or demand for”) [and other forms], from Old English ġeornan (“to desire, yearn; to beg”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *girnijan (“to be eager for, desire”), from Proto-Germanic *girnijaną (“to desire, want”), from *gernaz (“eager, willing”) (from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to yearn for”)) + *-janą (suffix forming factitive verbs from adjectives).
The noun is derived from the verb.
verb yearns · yearning · yearned · yearnt
- To have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something. All I yearn for is a simple life.
- To long for something in the past with melancholy or nostalgia. If I don’t go now, thought Charlotte, I shall have lost a chance which I shall eternally regret and yearn after.
- Of music, words, etc.: to express strong desire or longing. The music, yearning like a God in pain, / She scarcely heard: […]
- To have strong feelings of affection, love, sympathy, etc., toward someone. And Joſeph made haſte: for his bowels did yerne upon his brother: and he ſought where to weepe, and hee entred into his chamber, & wept there.
- To be distressed or pained; to grieve; to mourn. My father’s and my uncle Toby’s hearts yearn’d with ſympathy for the poor fellow’s diſtreſs,—[…]
- Often followed by out: to perform (music) which conveys or say (words) which express strong desire or longing.
- To have a strong desire or longing (for something or to do something).
- To cause (someone) to have strong feelings of affection, love, sympathy, etc.; also, to grieve or pain (someone). Well, ſhe laments Sir for it, that it would yern your heart to see it: […]
noun yearns
- A strong desire or longing; a yearning, a yen. Gibbs now said he wasn't going to pull any punches with Gary when he knew how jealous a man could get, so he also wanted to tell him that Phil Hansen was reputed to have a yearn for attractive ladies.
yearn²
- /jɜːn/ UK
- /jɝn/ US
Sounds like yern · Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n
Where it comes from
Probably either:
* a variant of earn (“to curdle, as milk”) (though this word is attested later), from Middle English erne, ernen (“to coagulate, congeal”) (chiefly South Midlands) [and other forms], a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnan (“to run”) (with the variants iernan, irnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow, run; to melt”), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to move, stir; to rise, spring”); or
* a back-formation from yearning (“(Scotland, archaic) rennet; calf (or other animal’s) stomach used to make rennet”).
verb yearns · yearning · yearned
- Of milk: to curdle, especially in the cheesemaking process.
- Of cheese: to be made from curdled milk.
- To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.
- To make (cheese) from curdled milk. Also his Honour the Duke will accept ane of our Dunlop cheeses, and it sall be my faut if a better was ever yearned in Lowden.
